Sora the Maelstrom
by KHGiggle
Summary: Sora is a nice boy. A very nice boy. But what if he was raised by the Tsviets in DEEPGROUND? Slight crossover twist. May contain OOC and butchering of characters. Chapter nine fixed.
1. Chapter 1

Hello readers! This is KHGiggle. This is my first entry too. I'm not used to writing in this format so please excuse me if it's a little stale. I'm working on it. Now for a quick explanation. In various fics, Sora is living with some FF characters, usually with Cloud in some way, shape, or form. Then I wondered why the Tsviets never show up in Kingdom Hearts. Hence, this fic. Thing is, I tweaked the Tsviet rosters a bit. I removed Argento and Shelke. I removed Argento because I know nothing about her. I removed Shelke because, well, maybe I better save that for a later chapter since I actually have a good reason. I did replace them though. I even added in some more Tsviets. Let's just say that the worlds were unstable long before Kingdom Hearts and it caused several individuals with potential to end up in Gaia and get picked up by Shinra. On to the story!

**I do not know how to do a page break.**

"Hm..."

Chris 'Hm'ing was not something you wanted to hear. Kimihiro knew her well enough to know that this meant she was stumped, and she was the one in charge of medicine. "That bad?"

"I do not recognize the symptoms. If it was degradation like with Weiss, we could have Sora give you blood transfusions until it was stopped and you would just recover in time. This is not degradation though. It has several symptoms in common, but I know nothing that would cause you to cough and vomit up black liquid. I cannot even identify the liquid."

Funny, he'd think even that would cause her to break her usual monotone pitch or at least show some form of emotion on her face. Then again, this was Chris. "Well, I know you'll tell the other Tsviets even if I ask you not to, but could you at least keep it from the lower ranks?"

"I see no reason to tell them, but the Tsviets will need to know," she said still in monotone as always.

"That's good enough for me."

Chris opened the door to the infirmary and raised an eyebrow when she saw Sora sitting in front of the door. "Sora, what are you doing here?"

Kimihiro mentally swore. He'd been hoping to break it gently to the younger Tsviet. Sora was only seven, and he still hadn't recovered mentally from what happened before he'd been brought to DEEPGROUND. He could only hope that the mako didn't have the same effect on him as it had on Elric and Chris. Two people stuck as kids were enough thank you.

Sora's reply was pretty simple. "I heard Kimihiro is sick. Is he gonna be okay?"

As always, Chris was blunt and didn't even try to gloss anything over. "I do not know. I do not recognize this disease. I must inform the others of his condition." With that said, she walked off to find the Tsviets. Sora walked in.

"Is it bad?"

"Well, it could be."

"Are you gonna die?"

"...Maybe."

"But I don't want you to die!"

Sora was starting to tear up. If it was anyone else, they would have told him that Tsviets do not cry and to stop it. Kimihiro still hung on to his previous life though, and he'd had his share of bad times. The older Tsviet ruffled Sora's messy hair. "Hey, relax. We're not Tsviets for no reason. I'll still be around for awhile."

Sora looked up sniffling. "But you're gonna die?"

Kimihiro winced. "If I do, it won't be for a while."

"But you're gonna die!"

That was true. Unless someone could figure out what was up with him, he would die eventually. Sora had figured that out, and it was upsetting him. Kimihiro thought for a moment before coming up with something that would hopefully calm Sora down. "Tell you what. If I do die, I'll be your guardian angel. How's that?"

"It's not the same! I won't be able to see you anymore!"

"You can't say that for sure. Have you ever seen an angel?"

"Does Nero count?"

"No way!"

"I guess I haven't..."

"If it does come to that, it won't be for a while, so you're stuck with me for a while yet!"

"Okay..."

Sora was still upset. Well, there was only so much Kimihiro could do, but he could think of one thing that worked with most kids. "Chris said it wasn't contagious. Wanna help me make some cookies?" he asked with a grin. Kimihiro was a great cook. Too bad he wasn't allowed in the cafeteria.

"Yeah! Cookies!"

At least Sora still had a normal reaction to that. And so the day continued as it normally did with the two Tsviets unassuming of the change that would be set into motion later that day.

**End of the chapter. Now for some closing remarks.**

Well, that's Chapter One. On a side note, one of the Tsviets is an OC. See if you can guess which one it is when you actually get to see the other ones. Most of the others are from anime and manga but will be acting OOC due to the training and experiments. Feel free to guess who's who. Maybe one day I'll reveal who everyone is.


	2. Chapter 2

Funny, I realized that the review thing was set up so that only logged in authors could review. I fixed it so that anyone can review now. Well, here's Chapter Two. This should get the story started, but it will still be a chapter or two before I get to the Kingdom Hearts plot, but you do get to meet all the Tsviets this chapter. Oh, and I don't own any of this. I forgot to say that last chapter, but it should be obvious. None of the writers own any of the series featured here.

**I do not know how to do a page break.**

After making several batches of cookies but only eating a few (Kimihiro, insisted saying Sora would get a stomachache and ruin his appetite.), the two went down the Weiss's 'weird throne room place,' as most Tsviets called it, for evening training. The majority of DEEPGROUND members are not able to train all the time. The ones who could were mostly new and had to get used to the training. Unfortunately for them, this meant dealing with Seren the Silver. If they weren't training, they could also be found in mako tubes. Only Tsviets did not require this on a regular basis. They're that much stronger. Still, Weiss does want them to train so they don't get rusty so every day they met in his room to spar. The only reason a Tsviet would not be present would be because they were either badly ill or badly injured. Because of the modifications they all had received, this was very rare.

"Right anyone got anything to say before we start evening training?" said Weiss.

Chris raised her hand. Seren gave her a glare. Seren was a training freak and was upset by anything that interrupted it. At Weiss's nod, Chris began to speak. "Kimihiro has come down with a degenerative disease. It is not degradation or any other known disease. Unless a way is found to treat it, he will die."

Weiss's brow furrowed. That sounded oddly similar to his previous situation, but it must be different if Sora's blood wouldn't work. "I see. How long?"

"It is very slow. The minimum he will be able to live with this should be 10 years unless an outside source interferes."

Weiss nodded. "Then I do not think this is an immediate problem. Is there anyone else?"

Nero spoke up. "Darkness is approaching."

That got everyone's attention. Usually Nero observed and made comments. If he had something to say, he would only say it to Weiss.

Zoro was the only one who seemed unimpressed. "Hmph, he talks."

Weiss rolled his eyes at the green-haired swordsman before focusing on Nero. "Could you elaborate?"

"I am able to harness the darkness for my own use, but I cannot control it. For some reason, it is starting to encroach on the planet."

Kyo raised an eyebrow. "You messed up?"

"No, I use only the darkness already present in this world. There is an abundance of it. For some reason, an outside source of darkness is encroaching onto the planet."

Kimihiro frowned. "It must be from some other world. Or worlds."

Nero turned towards the bespectacled Tsviet. "And you are the expert. It sounds familiar?"

Kimihiro nodded. It was well-known that he claimed to be from another world. It was much less well-known that evidence had been found that backed him up. "Something that Yuuko once told me about."

"What?" asked Nero.

"A Keyblade master tried to control the darkness. He introduced it to many worlds, and they were all destroyed. She never explained what a Keyblade is."

"So all life on the planet will be destroyed?" asked Rosso.

"Except for people with strong hearts. They just get flung to other worlds."

"Wonderful!" Most of the people there sweatdropped. They really didn't understand why Rosso would want to wipe out all life on Gaia.

"If it is possible to survive, I may be able to take us to a new world when this one is destroyed," mused Nero.

Ash grinned. "Cool. Sounds like it could be fun."

"Make sure you can do this before this happens," said Weiss, "And warn us before it's about to happen. Nero nodded. "If that is all, we shall start the training."

"Finally!" shouted Seren.

Training for the Tsviets was very simple. Fight whoever you come across, and Chris will fix you up later. Sora had been hanging around Kimihiro, but he was starting to fight on his own, although he was avoiding certain people, like Rosso. He had a couple of knives. They were small and easy for him to use. We won't go into detail about how training goes. Just know that multiple Curas were required afterwards.

A few weeks later:

Azul was walking down a hall on the way to the weaponry. He needed to clean his tank gun. Then Nero appeared in front of him. "Could you help me?"

"What with?"

"That darkness will arrive very soon. Seren is training the troops. Help me get her to the training room. Not even the end of the world will make her stop training."

This was not an understatement. She refused to stop a training session when there was a nasty accident that caused several soldier deaths. No one doubted she'd refuse to stop one now.

"Let me drop my gun off in the throne room."

One quick stop later, they found Seren angry and yelling at the troops. Seems they messed up her training exercise.

"That's not how you do it!" shouted Seren. "You pivot while swinging the sword upwards!"

It hadn't occurred to her that they were used to guns. Then she was grabbed from behind by Azul. This probably would not work most of the time, but Seren was actually a little less than 5 feet tall and small while Azul was over 9 feet tall and very large.

"Wha-Hey! Azul? ! Put me down!" Since she couldn't use her arms or sword, she tried kicking him. Too bad he barely felt it.

Azul turned towards Nero. "Got her."

Nero warped them to the training room where everyone else was. Weiss smiled. "Oh, good, you got Seren. I can do the roll call now." Weiss is very smart and strong, but sometimes he can be a little weird. Nero claims he was kind of like that before joining. "I'm here. Nero's here. Seren's here."

Seren had silver hair in a braid and silver eyes. She was dressed like a male foot soldier, but with no helmet and no sleeves, just gloves. She also had a broadsword about as tall as her slung over her back. "Put me down! I was in the middle of something!"

"Azul's here. Zoro's here."

Zoro had green hair, green eyes, and three gold earrings in his left ear. He wore a tight gray shirt and gray pants with a pattern of blue glowing lines over them, and he had a sash with glowing blue lines going vertically across it in equal increments. He had three katanas stuck in it.

"Elric's here."

Elric looked 10. Elric was actually his surname. His first name was Edward. He had yellow hair going to mid-back and yellow eyes, glowing green marks were on the right side of his face, his left shoulder and upper arm, and his right leg. His right arm and left leg were clawed prosthetics gilded with brass. He had shorts, a wife-beater, and a glove on his left arm, and a boot on his right foot, all with glowing blue lines.

"Rosso's here. Chris's here."

This was punctuated by an explosion. Chris looked more around the age of 13. Her eyes were blue-green, and her hair was in a very curly ponytail and couldn't decide whether it wanted to be brown or blonde. She was wearing a sleeveless tight shirt and fairly tight pants, both with the familiar glowing blue lines. She also had metal gloves up to her elbows. Thing is, she is one of the two women Rosso has an odd obsession with, and she's the preferred one. This results in nasty explosions due to Rosso getting far too close for Chris's comfort.

"Ash is here."

Ash was a smiling young man with messy black hair and amber eyes. He wore an open trench coat over a slightly modified DEEPGROUND soldier uniform.

"Kyo is here."

Kyo was a teenager with orange hair and brown eyes. His outfit consisted of baggy pants and a tight shirt with a zipper worked into one of the lines on it.

"Zakuro's here."

Zakuro had violet hair and eyes. She had hot pants with a length of purple cloth hanging off the left side (only to mid-thigh), a tube top with a purple cloth around her right shoulder, and knee high boots, all except the purple cloths having the glowing lines.

"Kimihiro's here."

Kimihiro had neat black hair, his right eye was green, his left eye was blue, he was pale even for DEEPGROUND, his uniform also looked like a regular DEEPGROUND soldier uniform, except more lines crossed over the torso and he had metal guards over his shins. He was also the only person in DEEPGROUND who wore glasses.

"And Sora's here."

Sora had spiky brown hair and bright blue eyes. You couldn't tell because of the mako glow, but his pupils were shaped like spirals. Nobody knows why. His clothing consisted of a tight gray shirt with two blue lines going up the front and across the sleeves, a sleeveless jacket with several long pockets on the front separated by blue lines and a blue spiral on the back, gray fingerless gloves with lines coming up from between the fingers, slightly baggy pants with pockets going down the outside of the legs with lines on either side of the pockets, and what looked like gray hiking boots with a line going down the back and one going horizontally over his toes.

"Right, we're all here," said Weiss.

"What about everyone else?" asked Sora.

"They are not strong enough to survive in my darkness for as long as required," replied Nero

"Oh..."

Ash shrugged. "They were gonna die eventually. Those guys are usually just cannon fodder anyway."

Sora gave him a gob-smacked look. Kimihiro palmed his forehead. Well, at least he hadn't had to find out on the battlefield.

"When will we know that it is here?" asked Zakuro.

"It will manifest in some way. Also, Kimihiro may be able to detect its presence," said Nero.

"If I do pick anything up, I'll say so."

"Does that mean that we just sit here and do nothing until then?" asked Elric.

Nero nodded.

"Then let me go! I wanna finish that training exercise!" shouted Seren.

Zoro snorted. "Why bother? They'll be dead in a couple of hours."

"Oh don't bother," said Rosso, "Everyone knows you can't reason with her when she's like this."

This was true, so Azul just kept restraining her. After a little while, something odd happened. A little black thing popped out of a shadow. It was vaguely human-shaped with little antennae and glowing eyes. Kimihiro looked at it. "That's definitely not normal."

"Hey, Nero, is this the manifestation you mentioned?" Kyo asked.

Nero narrowed his eyes. "Yes, I believe so."

Kyo grinned. "Looks like it's time for a fight then!"

Kimihiro suddenly whipped around towards some of the shadows in the corner of the room. "Hey! There's more!"

And with that, a whole lot of little shadows popped up. It was quickly discovered that they weren't that strong, but they had an advantage in numbers. Sora just started slashing and stabbing him with his knives. He couldn't help but notice that it seemed to be taking him more hits than the others.

"Don't worry about it," said Kimihiro, "You're smaller and not as experienced so it's only natural."

Sora wondered if he was ever gonna get used to Kimihiro's telepathy. He glanced over at said Tsviet. Kimihiro was avoiding attacks while lashing out with his telekinesis, spells, and the odd fox thing (kuda-something or other), dubbed Mugetsu he always carried around on his person. All the Tsviets had some pretty unique attack methods, and all the weapons were designed and made by Seren with a little help from Elric in making them. Off to the side Elric was impaling a couple of shadows on his lance, and Chris was beating them upside the head with her bo staff.

"Hey Kyo! Wanna see who can kill more of these?" shouted Zakura.

"Bring it on!" was his reply.

Zakuro used a whip with a base that somewhat resembled a cross. Kyo just used his claws and martial arts. They had a violent rivalry going on.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "You two...Always making everything a competition."

Zoro was obviously using his three swords. Why else would he carry them around?

A blue ball of energy hit a shadow sneaking up on Sora. It could be traced back to Ash, who had one hand outstretched and another holding an odd looking rifle. "Watch your back!" Then he turned intangible as one jumped at him. Then he turned invisible so as to confuse them. This worked very well against most opponents.

Kimihiro suddenly frowned. "Hm? Is something about to happen?" The room promptly started shaking.

"What is this? !" shouted Azul.

"It has started! We must leave now!" shouted Nero. He ripped his arms out of their bindings. This caught everyone by surprise. They hadn't even been aware that he could do that. He spread his arms out and a cloud of darkness surrounded them all. Several of the shadows were still there, but were quickly destroyed. A few seconds after that was taken care of, the cloud disappeared and they found themselves somewhere else. It was sunny. It was outside. They could hear waves somewhere nearby. The people were staring at them...Seems Nero made a small mistake when teleporting them.

**Now for more notes.**

And now the Tsviets are in Destiny Islands! This is why Shelke is not here. In DoC, Azul stated that Shelke needed mako treatments, unlike the other Tsviets. I assumed this meant she needed mako on a regular basis to survive, but the other Tsviets would be fine even if they never had mako again. Since they're gonna be in another world, they can't get mako so Shelke wouldn't last long. As for the other Tsviets, I haven't revealed all their abilities yet. I'm keeping some of them secret for later. Keep that in mind. Also, I apologize if anyone finds Rosso offensive. I got the idea from something Yuffie said in another fic I read once. Yuffie can plant some weird ideas in your head! One final note, Sora's jacket is based off a chuunin vest. That's all for now! Please leave a review for me!


	3. Chapter 3

Not much to say this time. The Tsviets are gonna have to get used to living in this new world. They might act a little odd because of that. Once again, I own nothing, except for the OC I mentioned.

**I do not know how to do line breaks.**

Destiny Islands was a nice community. It was peaceful, fully capable of supporting itself, and everybody knew each other. It was perfectly normal. No one could remember anything downright bizarre ever happening on any of the islands. Then a bunch of strangely dressed people showed up in the middle of town with weapons in hand. Kimihiro took a look at the shocked people and turned to Nero. "I think you chose a bad point to take us."

He shrugged. "I just chose the closest location."

"Hey! There are kids!" shouted Sora. He was technically the only child in DEEPGROUND. Elric and Chris were both much older than they looked.

"We come in peace," droned Chris. Several Tsviets looked at her in shock.

"Was that a joke?" asked Zakuro, wide-eyed.

"Well, it was the end of the world," said Elric, "I guess it could be possible."

"Odd, they look frightened," said Rosso.

"Yes, well, some of us look rather frightening, like Azul, Nero, and Elric to name a few," said Ash.

"It's probably the weapons!" said Zoro.

"Oh no! I am not giving up Tsukihime!" shouted Seren. Yeah, she named her sword.

Kimihiro sighed. "You do realize you're making them stare more, don't you?"

"Eh, that's their problem," said Kyo.

Weiss rubbed his chin in thought. "Maybe, but we are living here for now. We should try to get along with the locals." Then he turned towards said locals. "Greetings. We seem to have ended up on your island. Is there anywhere we could stay, preferably away from the general population?" This just got them all some more stares. He turned toward Kimihiro. "Well?"

Kimihiro winced at some of the thoughts he was picking up. "You don't want to know."

"At least the women here are cute!" said Rosso.

"She just made it worse."

"Rosso, be quiet until further notice," commanded Weiss.

That was when Sora decided to speak up. "Hi! My name is Sora! Can I play with one of you guys? Please? The only other kids in DEEPGROUND are Chris and Elric and they never wanna play with me!"

Kimihiro sent a mental message to the others. _"They feel sorry for him so nobody say anything." _This got some twitches, but they listened. Sora was now bouncing on the toes.

"Please? Please? Please?"

"There is that one house on the west beach..." said one man.

"Thank you, Sora you can stay here," said Weiss. The other 12 Tsviets went west while Sora stayed behind. He stared at the crowd. Then a certain boy spoke up.

"Your eyes look funny!"

"Riku!"

Sora stared in horror at the boy called Riku. He looked like Sephiroth, the ex-SOLDIER general. Sora did the most logical thing. He pointed, screamed, and ran off still screaming, confusing the crowd.

"What's his problem?" said Riku.

"It's your face!" shouted a certain hyper girl, Selphie of course.

"Hey!"

Sora suddenly stopped as something occurred to him. "Wait. He's a kid. He can't be Sephiroth," he thought. He ran back over and grinned at Riku. "Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

Riku gave him a look. "I look like someone you know?"

Sora decided it would be best to avoid this subject. "Wanna play? Please? I haven't gotten to play with any kids for forever!"

Riku shrugged. "Okay."

"Me too!" chimed Selphie.

So the kids all ran off.

"Cute kids."

Meanwhile, the other Tsviets had found the abandoned house they'd been told about.

"This place is a dump!" shouted Kyo.

It was pretty rundown. Elric grinned. "I can fix it up."

"You might want to try making it bigger," said Azul.

Elric nodded. "Good idea. Need to fit 13 in here. Someone's gonna need to get some supplies. I'm gonna need a lot of wood, nails, all the other stuff needed in a house." The Tsviets started gathering said materials from wherever. Several hours later found Riku leading Sora towards his new home.

"It should be somewhere around-huh?"It was the location of the house, but it had been completely repaired, and it was a lot bigger. The only visible Tsviet was Seren, who was currently trying to turn a boulder into gravel with her bare hands. "How did-"

"Sh! We don't want Seren to see us."

"Why not?"

Too bad this caught her attention. "Hm? Sora? Little Sephiroth?"

Sora winced. "Crap."

Riku raised an eyebrow. "Little Sephiroth?" Was this they guy Sora thought he looked like?

"About time," said Seren, "Weiss said I can't train any of the others since they were helping with the house, but you didn't do anything to help with it."

Sora's eyes widened. "Riku, run."

"Huh?"

"Block!" And then she came in swinging her sword. At least it was sheathed. Riku turned to run. Sora jumped to the side. "I said Block! Not dodge!" Then she started attacking again. From inside the house a few noticed.

Kimihiro twitched. "Weiss, Seren is attacking Sora and one of the kids."

Weiss nodded. "I know. She may be psychotic, but she knows what she's doing. She has never killed anyone with her extreme training. Even if it looks like that's what she's trying to do."

Kimihiro sighed. Of course Weiss didn't think that was a problem. "Can we at least have Chris on hand? I think that other kid's gonna need it."

"Agreed. He has no experience in dealing with Seren. He will likely strain himself due to the fear of being killed," said Chris. This caused Nero to narrow his eyes again. He did not want to have to transport the Tsviets again just because of something Seren did.

"I'll go break it up." He teleported outside. "Seren, stand down."

"I'm busy!"

Suddenly he was in front of her and knocked her down.

"I said stand down."

"Wh-Whoa..." Riku was rather stunned. Seeing Nero suddenly appear out of nowhere usually gets that reaction for the first few of times.

Sora waved. "Hi Nero."

Seren jumped up. "Are you serious? It's going to be next to impossible to get any training done here!"

Nero gave her a look. "You will simply have to deal with it."

Riku gave Sora a nervous look. "Is the rest of your family like this?"

Sora blinked. Family? He had been living with the Tsviets for about a year, and he was fond of them. He certainly didn't like the idea of them getting hurt. He'd even willingly given up a large amount of blood when it was discovered that the high amount of Jenova cells in his blood could treat Weiss's degradation. Sora couldn't really think of any of them as a particular family member. Except for Kimihiro. He was the overprotective mother, even if he was a guy. The other Tsviets were more like the weird/scary cousins you pretended didn't exist. "...Yeah, I guess they are."

"Huh?"

Sora laughed nervously. "Yeah, but some are worse than others."

Nero suddenly turned towards the two. "Come on Sora, Kimihiro made some sort of fish omelette. There wasn't much on hand."

"Okay. Bye Riku. I'll see you tomorrow." Then Sora ran into the house.

"That means you too Seren." She muttered something inaudible and walked into the house. Nero turned to Riku. "I apologize for her actions. I'm afraid she's quite insane."And then he teleported back into the house. Riku continued to stand there in shock.

"What just happened?"

Back inside, Seren was getting a lecture from Kimihiro.

"You can't just start swinging your sword at anyone who catches your eye! The people here are nowhere near strong enough to handle that. We're not in DEEPGROUND anymore. You need to remember that."

Seren glared at him. "You are not my superior."

"Actually, he has a point. Avoid it when you can," said Weiss. Seren pouted but didn't do anything to suggest she'd disobey. "We also need to fit in, so we should get some new clothes."

"No!" shouted Seren, "I am not giving up my uniform! I am a DEEPGROUND Tsviet and proud of it!"

"I kind of need to keep mine. Most shirts don't have openings for wings and don't have arm bindings, and I have a very good reason for those," said Nero.

"Fine. Everyone else has to get new clothes though," said Weiss. There were some mumblings. "Rosso, you have to get shorts at the very least."

"Darn."

"Small problem. We have no money," said Zakuro.

Zoro grinned. "I know how to solve that problem."

The next day found the Tsviets standing in front of the one clothing store on the islands. Ash was giving Zoro a suspicious look. "How did you get that much money in two hours?"

Zoro grinned. "Well-"

Kimihiro slapped his hands over Sora's ears. "I don't need to hear this! Neither does Sora!"

Sora was understandably confused. "Huh?"

"You don't get something for doing nothing," explained Elric.

"Let's just get this over with. I can't stand clothes shopping," said Kyo.

"Too bad," said Zakuro.

"Get something cute for Chris and Zakuro," said Rosso.

"Rosso, what did we say about this?" said Azul.

Rosso grinned. "I don't know. Remind me."

Azul rolled his eyes at this behavior.

"Let's just get this over with," said Weiss.

Sora got a white T-shirt, red shorts, and flip-flops. He was very happy with this. It was much more comfortable than his uniform. Some of the other clothes were odd though. Kimihiro had a white button up shirt and black slacks. Ash was wearing a blue jacket, a black shirt, and jeans. Kyo was wearing a gray muscle shirt and ripped shorts. Zakuro had a purple tube top and black hot pants. Elric was simply wearing a red shirt and black pants with boots.

"How can you wear those in this heat?" asked an incredulous Kyo.

"Prosthetic limbs."

"Only one leg is fake though."

Chris was wearing a green shirt and beige capris. Rosso had a tight red midriff shirt and really short denim shorts. Zoro was wearing a loose white T-shirt with a few buttons near the top, all undone, dark green, almost black pants and matching shoes and what appeared to be a green version of his sash. Azul was wearing simple denim pants a a gray shirt. Weiss was wearing a white wife beater and gray baggy pants.

"There, happy?" muttered Zakuro as she looked over her choice in clothing.

Rosso grinned. "I'm happy."

Sora was bouncing on his toes again. "Can I go now?"

Ash shrugged. "Go ahead."

Sora ran off. Kimihiro smiled "It's about time he had some friends his age." Mugetsu came out of his clothes and wrapped around his neck.

"Your pet is showing," said Zoro.

"Hm? What brought you out?"

Unfortunately, Selphie happened to be standing there. "What's that? It's cute!" Kimihiro's eyes widened. That was gonna take some explaining. Meanwhile, Sora had found Riku.

"Hi Riku! Do you wanna play again today?"

Riku nodded, although he seemed to be thinking of something. "Sure...I have a question."

"Shoot."

"Seren is pretty strong. Are most of the people that strong?"

"Well, most aren't that strong, but they're pretty close."

"What about you?"

Sora certainly doubted that. "I don't know. I don't think so, but Seren says she's gonna fix that. That really scares me."

"What about me?"

Sora blinked. "Huh?"

Riku got a determined look on his face. "I want to be strong. Do you think I could train with you?"

"I don't know why you'd want to, but sure." Honestly, who would willingly train with Seren?

"Great!"

Sora decided to warn him about some of the consequences. "Just get a lot of aspirin, and make sure to visit Chris so she can fix you up after Seren is done with you. She can fix the physical industries, but she can't do anything about how sore you're gonna be."

Riku nodded. "Okay, can we find her now?"

"I don't think so. She's in a bad mood right now."

"What do you wanna do then?"

"I dunno. What is there to do here?"

"We could always race for paopu fruit."

Sora gave him a blank look. "Paopu fruit?"

Sora was then given a lecture on Paopu fruit and how it was the greatest thing ever. Thus, started Sora's life on Destiny Islands. It would be seven years before it changed.

**End of the Chapter.**

Well, there's chapter three. Not too much, just Riku and Sora meeting and the Tsviets getting some clothes. It should pick up some in the next chapter. Until then, leave a review for me.


	4. Chapter 4

Woohoo! I got a review! And someone put it on their story alert!

Chapter Four. We're finally at the events of Kingdom Hearts. Sora's wearing his regular red outfit for now, but I'll change that later. As for how he met Kairi, it wasn't any different. She just tries to avoid his house for obvious reasons. Also, I'm gonna start putting thoughts in italics. It's much easier that way. Once again, I own none of this stuff.

**I do not know how to do lines.**

Seven years. Seven years the Tsviets had been living on the Islands. It had been peaceful for them. It had been fun for the kids. It had been harrowing for the adults. Seren decided that her training partners would not be limited to the Tsviets and would often attack random islanders, sometimes in their sleep. As a side effect, most of the islanders were now pretty good fighters. This isn't about Seren though. It's about Sora, who was currently sleeping in his room. Well, maybe sleeping isn't the correct word to use.

Sora rolled over and pressed his pillow over his head. Kyo was having a shouting match with Zakuro right next door and he was trying to sleep. It sounded like Zakuro was accusing Kyo of something or other. From next door, he heard a door slam open. Sounds like Ed was tired of the noise. Too bad he would just add to the noise.

"Will both of you shut the * insert several swear words * up? !"

Sora at this point decided that he wasn't going to get any sleep and just got up and left his room. He briefly noted that the three angry Tsviets had gotten into a fist fight and Rosso was happily watching them. Well, probably only Zakuro. Sora just yawned and made his way to the kitchen where Kimihiro was making breakfast and Chris was reading a book. Kimihiro gave him an understanding look and handed him a piece of French toast to eat.

"Those three wake you up?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah..."

"It'll probably get broken up in a few minutes," said Kimihiro.

Sora sat at the counter and his head hit the counter. "I still don't know what Weiss was thinking when he decided I got the room between theirs."

"True, it was one of his rarer...harebrained ideas," agreed Kimihiro.

He slid an omelet in front of Sora, who started eating it without checking what was in it. "I was hoping to get plenty of sleep today so I could go the island with Kairi and Riku."

"Be very careful when you build that raft," said Kimihiro suddenly.

Sora nearly choked. "You said you weren't gonna read anyone's mind anymore!"

"I didn't."

"But you just-"

Kimihiro let out a sigh and suddenly looked very tired. "I...had a bad dream." Chris closed her book and walked off. When Kimihiro had a bad dream, it usually meant something was going to happen. It was usually small, but sometimes it was huge, and it was best to be prepared. "You might want to pack that suit Seren made for you for the next few days. Your knives too."

"Okay..."

Seren had been making bigger copies of his uniform as he got older. Kimihiro had been quite happy with this. It meant Sora was actually going to grow up physically and wouldn't be stuck as a kid for the rest of his unnatural life.

Kimihiro suddenly started coughing. It lasted for a good minute and he had to lean on the counter while Mugetsu came out to try and comfort him. Sora gave him a concerned look. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He moved his hand away and winced. It was covered in a disgusting black liquid. He probably had some around his mouth too. He quickly wiped it off. "That's been happening a lot more often lately. I think it's getting worse."

Sora frowned. "But Chris said you have at least 10 years."

"Yeah, but that was 7 years ago. I only have 3 left, and Chris never said what sort of condition I'd be in as my time lessened, although I would expect to get worse." Sora was rather silent at this. He still didn't like the idea of Kimihiro dying. He'd have to face it eventually, but he was planning on putting it off for as long as he could. "You should go. You don't want to keep your friends waiting."

Sora gave him a 'This isn't over yet' look and ran off. He did want to work on his raft after all. A few hours later found Sora sleeping on the beach. This happened pretty often. That's what happens when your room is between two loud guys. After a little while, Sora blinked awake wearily. That had been a weird dream. Maybe Kimihiro was rubbing off on him. He hoped not. It sounded like Kimihiro had really weird dreams. And they usually meant something or other. Yeah, way too troublesome... A red-headed girl popped into Sora's vision.

"Sora you lazy bum!"

Sora jumped slightly as Kairi's sudden appearance. "Oh come on! Zakuro and Kyo woke me up again! And then Ed started yelling at them!"

"Can't you just ask for a different room?"

"You'd think that, but it's not that simple. Weiss doesn't like moving us around."

Riku's voice suddenly cut in as he walked up with a log. "Are you two gonna leave me to do all the work myself? Honestly Kairi, you're just as bad as him."

Kairi grinned. "Heh, so you noticed."

In the years since Sora had arrived, Riku had somehow ended up training with him and the rest of the Tsviets, even Seren. Because of this, some of the Tsviets consider him crazier than them. It had paid off though as he was now quite muscular and strong. Sora didn't look very muscular, but it was mostly a side effect of his earlier mako treatments.

"Here," said Riku as he tossed Sora the log he was holding. Sora caught it easily. Sora turned back to Kairi.

"Well, if you got something for me to do with the raft, then tell me what to do," he said.

"We need some more supplies to build it, said Kairi, "We need three more logs, some rope, and some cloth for a sail."

"I can get that stuff. I'll bring it back here once I get it all."

They weren't that hard to find. There were some toppled trees on the island that he cut up a bit for the logs. Then he found some cloth and rope in the rafters built on some trees. He hurried back to Kairi with the procured items.

"I'm back!"

"You found everything?" asked Kairi.

Sora nodded. "Yeah."

Kairi smiled. "Great! We can finish building the raft now."

The three kids spent the rest of the day building the raft. As evening came around, they decided it was complete. They looked at it with pride as they thought about where it would take them.

"Hey, do you guys wanna come over to my place for dinner?" asked Sora. Kimihiro was the best chef on the island. Everyone said so. Unfortunately, while he did have something of a part time job making food for people, he mostly cooks for the Tsviets. Thing is, dinner could sometimes get violent with them.

"Uh, no thanks," said Kairi, "Kimihiro makes good dessert, but it's just not worth it."

"I think I'll give it a try. I haven't eaten with you guys in a while," said Riku. Sora grinned. Having someone over to his house was a very rare occasion. He was always happy when someone came over. Roughly 10 minutes later, they walked into the house. Riku blinked a couple of times.

"Seren didn't attack us."

Sora laughed nervously. "Kimihiro had a bad dream. She's probably making a cache. She does that every time he has one."

Riku gave him a questioning look.

"It means that something is going to happen, usually bad," Sora explained.

"Oh."

With that, they made their way to the kitchen where Kimihiro was cooking dinner. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Riku.

"A guest?" Sora laughed nervously. "Don't worry about it. It's early enough that I can throw in enough for him. How'd your raft building go?"

Riku spluttered a bit indignantly. "How did you-"

"I had a bad dream."

Sora frowned. "You don't think something's gonna go wrong, do you?"

Kimihiro frowned. "I don't think so. I saw a bunch of random images. That was one of them. I also saw a mouse person type thing, a man in a cloak, some odd people at a table, a dragon, some odd town, a castle, and some doors that gave me just an odd feeling. Other than that, my dream was completely black. Last time something like that happened, a spider ate my right eye."

Riku blinked. "But you have both your eyes."

This was followed by an awkward silence. Sora decided to break it. "So, what's for dinner?"

"Well, I made a bit of sushi with a side of corn muffins and succotash."

"Succotash?"

"Lima beans and corn." Riku was tempted to ask where Kimihiro learned all these dishes no one had heard of but decided not to. Kimihiro's explanations were usually pretty weird. At that moment, Zoro walked in. He raised an eyebrow.

"We got a guest? That hasn't happened in a while." He reached into the fridge, pulled out a bottle of tequila, and took a swig of it. Kimihiro twitched slightly at this.

"Yeah, so you guys had better be on your best behavior."

Zoro shrugged. "I'll go tell the others then."

He left, still with the tequila.

"Anything we can do until dinner is ready?" asked Riku.

"Hm...You could go find Ash. He's always difficult to find."

"Isn't he usually invisible?"

Sora nodded. "That's why we always have so much trouble finding him. The only one who can see him while he's like that is Kimihiro, and he's cooking."

After searching for Ash for about an hour, they found him sleeping in the wall of the computer room. By then, Kimihiro had finished cooking and it was time for dinner. No one was behaving themselves. Either they ignored Zoro or he hadn't actually told them.

"You know, I think you're the only person who ever comes over for dinner," said Weiss.

Ash frowned. "What about that redhead a few years ago?"

Sora rolled his eyes as he remembered that event. "You guys scared Kairi. She won't come over now."

Ed grinned. "Then this guy must be the craziest guy on the island."

Sora wanted to point out that several Tsviets were crazier, but decided not to so as to avoid being beat up. Riku decided to say so though. "I don't know, I think that most of the people in this house are much crazier Ed."

"It's Elric!"

Kimihiro palmed his face. This was not a good sign. Zakuro decided to ask a question. "What's the big deal anyway? If you don't like 'Ed,' why not just go by Edward instead of Elric? If you're trying to make yourself seem older, it's not working."

Ed narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying I look like a kid?"

"Of course you do! The mako in your body makes you look just like a little kid!"

"WHO YOU CALLING A SHRIMPY ANT WHO'S TOO SMALL TO EVEN SQUISH!" Yep, that had done it. Ed threw a fork at Zakuro. She ducked and it nearly hit Ash, who turned intangible so that it landed in Sora's hair with an indignant 'Hey!' from the brunette. Zakuro threw her empty plate at Ed, but he blocked it with his right arm. A normal plate would break, but Kimihiro had managed to get nigh unbreakable plates from somewhere. Instead it bounced off and landed on Zoro's shirt, smearing remains of food all over it. Zoro twitched. Then he jumped on the table and attacked both Ed and Zakuro. It degenerated into a brawl. Seren grinned and joined in. Then Kyo did too just so he could get a hit in on Zakuro. The table couldn't take the weight and collapsed. Kimihiro's eyebrow twitched and he rubbed his temples.

"There goes another one..."

"I guess dinner is over then," said Weiss.

"But I didn't get to finish Kimi's yummy food!" complained Ash.

"Then eat faster," said Nero.

"Easy for you to say! You eat so fast that no one can even see you take off your mask!"

"As intriguing as your conversation is, what do we do about them?" asked Azul while nodding at the bickering group.

"Let them fight. I think I might join in myself," said Rosso.

Kimihiro snapped. "If you don't stop fighting now, none of you is getting any dessert for a week!" That made them stop. Kimihiro's desserts are heavenly. "And no dessert tonight for destroying another table!" This was met with several groans. Riku chuckled nervously.

"Maybe I should leave now."

"You sure?" asked Weiss. "We'll be doing evening training in a bit."

Despite being on a peaceful island, Weiss decided to keep up their training sessions. This was done partly so everyone could keep their edge and partly to pacify Seren. Riku knew better than to take Weiss up on this offer though, especially with the grins certain members were giving him that said they would go straight for him. "That's okay. I should probably be getting home soon anyway." He left as soon as Kimihiro had given him some chocolate ice-cream with marshmallow fluff swirls.

"Actually, that wasn't as bad as the dinner disasters usually are," said Sora.

"I know, but they're still not getting any ice cream." That's Kimihiro for you. The next day found Riku and Sora arguing over what to call their raft.

"I think it should be called the Masamune!"

"What kind of name is that? The Highwind is way cooler!"

Kairi rolled her eyes. "You guys are at it again? How're we gonna solve it this time? Race, spar, how long you last in a fight with a ticked off Seren, see who can steal more of Zoro's drinks before being disembowled?"

"We can't do the last two if we want to sail anytime soon," said Sora. Despite the fact that Chris could heal them, if they did something she thought was stupid, she'd only heal them enough to keep them alive as punishment.

"Sora would have an unfair advantage in the race," said Riku. This was true. They were both pretty fast, but because of his mako treatment, Sora could jump from the beach onto the little cliffs they usually included in races.

"Looks like you guys get to decide with a spar."

The two grinned at each other.

"Okay, if I win, I get to be captain," said Sora.

"If I win, I get to share a paopu with Kairi," said Riku.

"Wha-Huh? !" That had caught Sora off guard.

"Okay, and go!"

Riku jumped forward with a downward strike. Sora jumped back while pulling out his own wooden sword. He'd wanted wooden daggers, but Seren had gone on a tizzy about how he should learn how to use another weapon so he made do with the sword. Sora jumped forward with a stab that Riku parried. Riku kicked at Sora. Sora caught it and tried to hit Riku in the head with the hilt of his sword. Riku bent his head back enough to avoid this while wrenching his foot out of Sora's grip. He crouched while swinging his sword at Sora's legs. Sora jumped over the swipe and brought his sword down onto Riku's head. Riku rolled out of the way before it could hit and managed to land a hit on Sora's side.

"Riku got the first hit!" shouted Kairi. "He wins!" That was how they did their spars. It would take too long if they did it until they got a certain number of points or were unable to fight.

"Aw man..."

"Highwind it is then." Sora pouted at Riku. "What? Is it about the paopu? I was joking. Don't worry about it."

"You know, you could include me if you want to share paopus." Kairi had a very good point there so the boys wisely dropped the subject. "Okay, today, we need to collect provisions." She gave Riku his list first and he went off to find his items. "Sora, you need to get a seagull egg, three fish, two coconuts, the yellow ones not the brown ones, three mushrooms, and fill this bottle with some drinking water, but make sure it's not from the ocean!" She handed him a bottle that looked like it would hold about a pint. He made a note to bring a couple of much larger bottles to fill with water. He didn't think that a little bottle like this would hold enough water for them. Sora then went off to find said supplies.

Sora's first stop was the coconut grove. He climbed up the trees until he found a couple of coconuts that were still yellow. As a plus, he also found a seagull nest and got the egg. He dropped the coconuts and egg off to Kairi and made a stop at the spring to fill the bottle. Sora looked at the entrance to the Secret Place. "Maybe there's some mushrooms in there." He crawled in and looked around. All over the walls were carvings of pictures. Sora walked all the way to the back where there was a door with no handle or keyhole. It was just there. There was a mushroom growing in front of the door. Sora grinned and picked it up. Then he looked at a picture of him and Kairi. They'd carved it when they were younger, not too long after she came to the island. Sora walked over to the picture and started carving an addition to it. After a few minutes he paused. Then he whirled around pressing his daggers against the neck of the cloaked man who was standing there.

"That's not very nice."

"Who are you? You're not from these islands. How and why are you here?"

"I've come to see the door to this world."

"What?"

"This world has been connected."

"What are you talking about?"

"Tied to the darkness...soon to be completely eclipsed."

Sora frowned. Eclipsed? Did this guy mean this world was going to disappear like the one he used to live on? "Are you saying this world is gonna be destroyed? Are you from another world?"

This got a chuckle from the man. "You do not yet know what lies beyond the door."

"That's a yes?"

"There is so very much to learn. You understand so little."

"Yeah? Well, just you wait. We're gonna go out there and learn what's out there!"

"A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

Sora's eyes darted toward the door for a second while wondering if that was the door that the guy was talking about. Then his eyes returned to the man, or, at least where he had been. Sora quickly whirled around. No one was there.

"Okay..." _"Man, that's not good. I'm definitely gonna have to tell the others about that. Where'd he go anyway? Does he have some kind of teleportation ability like Nero? Or turn invisible like Ash? Darn it, I need to talk with them about this." _Sora decided to just leave for now and worry about it later. Besides, he still needed to get some mushrooms and fish. After some searching, he found another mushroom behind some large rocks and on a patch of grass. Sora gave these to Kairi and went to catch the fish. This was actually pretty easy. He just stabbed the first three fish he saw with his daggers. Riku seemed amused by this.

"If we run out of food, you're the official fisherman," said Riku.

"Fine by me. As long as I can see them, I can catch them," said Sora.

"Well, that's everything," said Kairi. "So, we're leaving tomorrow, right?"

"Something might come up," said Sora. This got the two to look at him weirdly. "I ran into a guy in the Secret Place. I didn't recognize him, and he said some things that made me nervous. I want to talk about it with Nero."

Riku frowned. "We're supposed to leave tomorrow."

"I know. He can probably handle it without me, but, well, you never know." This got a sigh from the other two.

"Sora, how come you stay with them? Most people would've left by now," asked Kairi.

Sora smiled. "They're my family. I guess that seems kind of strange to you guys, but it's the truth."

This got a shrug from Riku. "Whatever. I'm gonna go on home now. Meet me here tomorrow morning so we can set off nice and early." He walked off. Kairi turned and looked off towards the horizon where the sun was setting.

"Sora? Wanna watch the sunset with me?"

Sora blushed slightly. "Sure!"

They went to the end of the dock and sat down just watching the sunset. Kairi suddenly spoke up.

"You know, Riku's changed."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Well..."

Sora tilted his head. Kairi seemed to be thinking pretty deeply. "You okay?"

Kairi suddenly gave him a big smile. "Sora, let's take the raft and go-Just the two of us!"

Sora's eyes widened in surprise. That was really out of character for Kairi. "Huh? !"

Kairi giggled. "Just kidding!"

Sora let out a mental sigh of relief. He honestly didn't know how to respond to that. "I don't know what's gotten into you. You're the one that's changed."

"Maybe..." She turned back to the sunset. "You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready. No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here, right?"

"Of course!"

Kairi smiled. "That's good...Sora, don't ever change." Sora raised an eyebrow. That was something that no one could promise. Kimihiro had beaten that knowledge into his head. "I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it's gonna be great..."

"Yeah...We should probably get home. It's probably about time for dinner."

"Yeah..."

The two rowed back to shore and went to their respective homes. As soon as Sora was done making sure Seren wasn't going to attack him out of nowhere he started calling for Nero. "Hey! Nero! I need to ask you something! Where are you?"

"Behind you."

Sora jumped and spun around. Nero was there all right. He must've teleported there when Sora called his name. "Don't do that!" _"I guess some things really do never change."_

"You're the one that wanted to ask me something. What is it?"

"Ah, right. Something weird happened today on the island." Sora quickly explained his run in with the cloaked man and what he'd said. When Sora was done, Nero had a thoughtful look on his face, although most people would have trouble seeing that because of his mask. "Is it bad?"

"It could be. The Darkness may be encroaching on this world now as well." Sora's heart dropped. He'd come to love this world and couldn't stand the idea of it and the people who lived in it disappearing. "I haven't sensed this though, so it may still be a ways off, unless someone does something that causes it to speed up. I'll have to check. Stay close to the others until then."

Sora winced. _"Great, I guess I'll have to convince Riku and Kairi to wait a few days then."_ He sighed and decided to just go to his room for now. He needed some time to think about what to do.

An hour later and Sora still didn't know what to do. He sighed and looked out the window at the growing storm. Wait a minute. Storm? ! "The raft!" He promptly jumped out the window, ran towards the dock, and rowed to the island in record time. Sora saw a dark sphere in the sky. "I guess Nero was a little off..." His eyes went to two boats already there. _"I guess Riku and Kairi had the same idea." _He started walking to look for the two when several small, dark, very familiar figures appeared around him. Sora's eyes widened. "You!" He pulled out his daggers from their hidden sheaths and quickly tore the shadows apart. They kept coming though. Deciding, that he wouldn't be able to get rid of all of them, he started dashing while slashing any that got too close to him. _"If these guys are here, then that means that this world is disappearing! I have to find Riku and Kairi before that happens!"_ He saw a flash of silver out of the corner of his eye. _"Found him."_ He jumped onto the piece of land Riku was standing on. "Riku! Is Kairi with you? !"

"The door has opened..."

Sora blinked. Where had that come from? That was what the man from earlier said, and Riku had barely reacted to Kairi's name. Sora suddenly felt worried. "Are you okay?"

Riku turned to look at him. Sora froze at the look in his friend's eyes. He'd seen that look before. "The door has opened Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!"

Sora gulped. Did Riku have something to do with that orb in the sky? "Riku...What about Kairi?"

"Kairi's coming with us!" Sora jumped with the ferocity of that statement. Now he knew something was wrong. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our families again. There's no turning back, but this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!" Then a shadow surrounded Riku and started crawling up his body while he held his hand out to Sora. Sora was frozen for a second before leaping forward.

"No! Riku!" He tried to grab Riku's hand, but something was holding him back. He wasn't aware the darkness was crawling up his body as well. "You can't be like him!" It was up to their chests. "You can't!" Only their heads were uncovered. "You can't!" Then Riku was gone and Sora was all alone in the darkness. Almost immediately, a speck of light appeared. Then it suddenly got bigger until the darkness had completely disappeared. Sora promptly found himself back on the islands holding the oddest weapon he'd ever seen. It looked like a giant silver key, but it had a black handle and what looked like yellow hand guards. Coming off the end was a silver chain that ended in a large circle connected to two smaller circles.

"Keyblade...Keyblade...Keyblade..."

Sora jumped. That was the voice from his dream the other day. Sora looked around but didn't see anyone, just his daggers. He must've dropped them when he tried to grab the now missing Riku. _"Riku..." _His thoughts were interrupted when more of the shadows appeared. Sora lashed at one with the key and was surprised when it was beheaded and disintegrated. _"Weird, this works better than my daggers." _Sora grabbed his daggers anyway and stuck them in his belt while he went looking for Kairi and destroyed any shadows that got too close to him. _"Okay, where would Kairi go? She's not really a fighter, so she'd try to avoid them...Oh no! What if she went to the Secret Place? ! She'll be cornered!" _With that thought in mind, Sora ran to the Secret Place as fast as his legs could carry him. To his surprise, none of the shadows were there, but Kairi was. She was standing in front of the door with her back to him. Sora frowned. The door now had a keyhole for some reason.

"Kairi?"

Kairi slowly turned around. Sora winced. Her eyes looked empty. "So...ra?" She reached out to him just as the door blew open. A strong wind rushed out and pushed her towards him. Sora opened his arms to catch her, only for her to go right through him. Then the wind hit him and sent him tumbling. He rubbed his head and stood up. He blinked. He was on a piece of floating land, closer to the dark orb in the sky than he would've liked.

"_What happened just now? Why'd Kairi go through me? And how'd I get here?"_ His thoughts were cut off when a giant shadow with snake like hair and a heart-shaped hole in its chest appeared. Sora's eyes widened in shock. _"This thing is from my dream! What's going on here? !" _It punched the ground, but Sora jumped to the side. If he jumped back too much, he'd fall off the piece of land. The large shadow's punch went into the ground and caused a puddle of darkness to appear where several of the smaller shadows spawned. _"This thing is just like my dream..." _Sora looked at the key in his hands. _"Maybe I can beat it the same way!" _ He ran towards the arm in the ground and jumped onto it, running towards the head. It made a swipe at him with its free hand, but Sora jumped over it and swiped at it with the key. It let out a screech of pain as Sora used the injured hand to jump onto its shoulders and make a cut into its neck. Then he jumped into the air and brought the key above his head. "Get out of here!" Then he brought it down on the shadow's head and let gravity do the work as he cut it in two vertically. As the pieces started to disappear, Sora felt himself get picked up. His eyes widened as he started going towards the orb. _"This is so not good."_ And then he blacked out.

Meanwhile, in a world full of survivors, an anthromorphic dog looked up into the sky.

"Look, a star's goin' out!"

His companion, an anthromorphic duck looked up as a star suddenly blinked out of existence. He frowned. "Come on. Let's hurry. Where's that key?"

"Hey, ya know, maybe we ought to go find Leon." The dog paused as he noticed the last member of the group, a regular orange dog suddenly run off. Had he noticed something? "Uh Donald, You know, I betcha that-"

The duck, Donald, cut him off. "Aw, what do you know, ya big palooka?" He continued walking away. The other rubbed his head.

"What do I know? Hmmm... Come on Pluto." He walked on after Donald, but the other dog, Pluto was too interested in his find to follow. It wasn't everyday you find a boy with an outfit that looks like your master's clothes unconscious in an alley after all.

**I do not know how to do line breaks.**

There's chapter four. Sora is now in Traverse Town. Should be interesting. There are probably a few things you want to know.

The fight scenes were short, I know. It's still early. Sora will have tougher boss fights as he goes on.

When I had the fight scene with Riku, I mentioned something about points. This requires a bit of explanation. I am a second-degree brown belt. When we spar, we use a point system. Different moves to different parts of the body get you 1,2, or 3 points. Whoever gets 8 points first, or who has the most points when time runs out, wins. It was a bit different here because Kairi wouldn't know how many points a move would be worth, they had no way to keep time, and it would take too long for someone to get eight points.

I'm aware that Riku is a difficult fight at this point for most people, but Sora is a Tsviet. He's much stronger this time around and about equal to Riku. Besides, Riku still won. As Riku said though, Sora is too good at the race for it to be fair. That's an advantage that he'll try to use later.

Sora attacked Ansem. Yes, that is a bit out of character, but he was raised by the Tsviets. Even Kimihiro and Chris would have that reaction. Sora is pretty much the same as the canon Sora, but this one is more mature and will not be quite as trusting of certain people.

I once read that Sora's first outfit was originally based off of Mickey Mouse's clothes. That's why Pluto is so interested in him, in my opinion.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, and my fun, an omake.

**Omake: What About the Rest? Part I**

Kimihiro blinked. He'd been about to serve dinner. Now he was standing on a beach. He even still had the ladle with him. He twitched.

"Now what? !" Mugetsu flew out of his clothes and rubbed against his cheek. Well, at least he was still there. Kimihiro took a quick look. This didn't look like any of the beaches on the islands. He walked over to some buildings and frowned. He didn't recognize the style. _"Yep, definitely not Destiny Islands." _That decided, he looked around until he found a path further into the island. Two minutes after starting down it, he was surrounded by some sort of orange wolves. He twitched. _"Monsters. Great." _ He tossed a fireball that curved around and hit four and another one that was big enough to incinerate the other three. He dusted his hands off. _"At least they were weak."_

"Whoa!" Kimihiro froze and turned around. There was a group of men standing there gaping at him. They were wearing yellow baggy pants that looked similar to Riku's and orange vests. The leader had a ball and weird orange hair that went up at the front into a high curl. Kimihiro wasn't sure if that was supposed to be possible. "I was gonna help you, but you managed to take them out on your own! You a mage?"

"Yeah." It would probably be best to go along with them for now. "Who are you guys?"

"We're the Besaid Aurochs, Besaid's blitzball team."

"Oh, what's blitzball?" This got him a few gasps. _"Oh great. Did I mess up already?"_

"You don't know what blitzball is? Did you get too close to Sin?"

"...Probably." Honestly, he had no idea what that meant, but he might as well go along with it for now.

"Wow, you lucky you alive. Praise be to Yevon." Then they all did some weird hand movement and bow. Kimihiro twitched. This better not be some weird religion!


	5. Chapter 5

Here I am at chapter 5. Sora will now get to experience Traverse Town and get some explanations for everything that's been going on. He also has a nasty encounter with Yuffie. Once again, I own nothing.

**I still haven't figured out how to do those line things.**

Pluto sniffed the boy lying unconscious in the alley. To tell the truth, Pluto had no idea who this was, but he dressed like his master and smelled pretty friendly. Pluto gave him a big lick on the face. "Gah! Huh?" Too be fair, Sora had never seen a dog that looked like Pluto before. "Is this a dream?" Pluto jumped on him. "It's not a dream!" He quickly pushed Pluto off and gazed out of the alley. "It doesn't look like the islands. It looks more like the slums in Midgar." He turned towards Pluto. "I don't suppose you know where I am?" Pluto's eyes darted and he ran off towards whatever had caught his attention. "I guess not...I must've ended up in another world without Nero..." Sora looked himself over. Everything was there, including his daggers and the key. _"This place looks kind of shady. I should probably change into my DEEPGROUND uniform." _Their uniforms were actually much more resistant than normal clothing. Otherwise, they would go through uniforms and clothes far too quickly for anyone's taste. Sora took a look at his uniform. Seren had kept the same design. It was just bigger. He shrugged and quickly changed his clothes, but kept his crown charm, putting his other outfit away for now and putting his daggers in the hidden sheaths in his pants and managed to position the key on his back by sticking it in his jacket. That done, he stepped out and got his first good look at Traverse Town. It looked like any other town besides how dark it was. He just went into the first building he saw.

"Hey there, how can I-Oh, it's just a kid." Sora twitched. The guy at the counter was blond with stubble, a toothpick in his mouth, goggles, and an outfit that reminded Sora of Zoro's except the sash was yellow and the pants were blue.

"I'm not a kid! And the name's Sora!"

"Aw, simmer down you brat. What's with the long face? You lost or something?" It looked like the guy wasn't gonna use Sora's name.

"Well, yes and no. Where am I?"

"Eh?" Sora quickly explained to him what had happened prior to his waking up in an alley. "Well, that sucks. You're in Traverse Town."

"Traverse Town, huh?" Sora had certainly never heard of a town like that. "Hey gramps, I'm in another world aren't I?"

"Don't call me gramps! The name's Cid! And this ain't your island. Can't say if you're on another world or not."

"I think I am. Something similar happened to me before." Cid gave him a weird look. "A friend kept it from being too bad. He wasn't around this time."

"Whatever. You buying something or not?"

"Uh, I didn't grab my wallet when I left. Maybe later." He left before Cid could say anything. _"Okay, definitely another world. I better see if anyone else ended up here." _That decided, Sora started to explore the part of town he was in. He found out was that the town had three districts, and districts two and three were infested with something called 'Heartless.' _"I know I don't know anything about these 'Heartless,' but I need to see if I can find anything."_ That being said, he walked through the doors to the second district.

When Sora walked into the second district he noticed that it seemed perfectly normal. Nothing seemed to be waiting to attack him. Then a man came running and fell down a few feet from Sora. Sora went over to check on him, but then a heart came floating out of the man. Sora blinked at the absurdity of the situation before the heart suddenly got swallowed up by darkness and turned into a little black and blue thing with a helmet that disappeared. The man also disappeared. Sora's eyes widened. _"What was that? !" _Then several familiar shadows appeared around him. Sora blinked as realization struck. "These are the Heartless? !" At that, they attacked. He didn't really have any trouble fighting them off. _"I guess these guys have the same problem. What happened to that guy though? And what was that thing with the helmet? Some other Heartless?" _He sighed and kept looking around for anything useful. It seemed that there weren't any people here though, just Heartless. It was the same in the third district. Annoyed, Sora returned to the accessory shop. Cid raised an eyebrow.

"You again? What now?"

"There's nothing but Heartless in districts two and three."

"You must be new if you just now figured that out."

Sora sighed. "I was just kind of hoping I'd find someone I'd know." That seemed to soften Cid a little.

"Everyone's like that here. All the inhabitants are survivors from worlds that were destroyed by Heartless. Might be on some other world. Or maybe you missed them when you were looking."

"I dunno. Some of them are pretty easy to notice. I'll go check anyway." He turned to leave.

"Wait a minute." Sora turned back towards Cid. "Your eyes are glowing. They mako eyes?"

Sora blinked. Was this guy from his old world? "Yeah."

"Shit, how'd that happen?"

"I was in an accident when I was a kid. I ended up exposed to mako because of it. It probably helped me recover." With that, Sora walked out. He didn't want Cid to ask any more questions. Sora looked up at the sky. _"What do I do now?"_

"They'll come at you out of nowhere." Sora jumped and whirled around to see who had said that. It was a man with brown hair, gray eyes, a scar across his face, black leather clothing, lots of belts, and what appeared to be a gunblade.

"Who are you?" _"I didn't even notice him!"_

The man didn't answered him. "And they'll keep coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade." Here he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"

Sora twitched. "I'm not a kid."

The man rolled his eyes. "Doesn't matter. Now, let me see that Keyblade."

Sora looked at the large key slung across his back. _"It's called a Keyblade?" _He looked back at the man. "Not gonna happen."

The man shrugged and brought his gunblade up. "Fine. Have it your way."

Sora did not use the Keyblade as expected. He could tell the man had lots of experience so Sora was going with a weapon he was more comfortable with, his daggers. When Sora caught the gunblade with his daggers, it caught the man by surprise for a second. Then he fired the gun part of his weapon and Sora jumped 45 degrees to the left to attack the man's exposed side. He got a light cut, but the man knocked his arms away and jumped back somewhat. Sora dashed forward to press his attack before that man could fully recover. Unfortunately, the man managed to block with his gunblade. So Sora decided to sidekick him in the ribs. This got a grunt from the man, but he managed to grab Sora's foot and twist it so that Sora was spun and his back was to the man. Sora spun back around, but not fast enough to avoid a bullet to the side. He grit his teeth and threw a dagger at the man's head. The man held his gunblade up to deflect it, and Sora went in low in an attempt to cut, or at least damage, the ligaments in the man's calves. Too bad something hit him in the head hard enough for him to get knocked out. The man grunted and turned towards where the large shuriken had come from. There was a black-haired girl with short hair, a gray headband, a green tank top, yellow shorts, a yellow scarf, and suspenders standing there. He gave her a look.

"Why did you do that?"

The girl gave him a disbelieving look. "He has mako eyes! He was probably with Shinra! Plus, he was going for your ligaments there!"

"I had it covered."

"Yeah right! I can't believe the Keyblade master is one of Shinra's people! Why would it choose one of them? !"

"Just help me carry him back to the hotel room."

So, Sora was taken to a hotel room and put in a bed. Thankfully it didn't take too long for him to start rousing. The girl took advantage of it.

"Wake up you lazy bum!"

Sora groaned. "Kairi?" He opened his eyes and blinked. The girl twitched.

"I'm not Kairi! I'm the great ninja Yuffie!"

Sora sweatdropped. "Uh, sorry. Where am I?"

She gave him a look. "No way. I'm not answering your questions 'till you answer mine!"

"Huh?"

"First off, how long have you been with Shinra?"

Sora's eyes widened as realization hit. "Wait a-You're from Wutai!"

"That's right!"

"I was never in the SOLDIER program! And even if I was, I'd be too young to participate in the Shinra-Wutai War. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm younger than you!"

Yuffie looked pretty thoughtful. "You have a point there, but why do you have mako eyes?"

"I was found and fostered by one of Shinra's SOLDIERS. Later, I was in a really bad accident. My treatment afterwards included mako treatments, among other things. Then I was left in this other division. It was new and never really did anything before the world disappeared." Sora left out a few things, but what he said was true, and Yuffie seemed to believe him.

"Okay. It seems believable. I'll accept you as my ally!" Sora was getting confused. "Anyway, you're in a hotel room in the second district. We needed to get you away from the Heartless."

"But isn't the second district overrun by Heartless?"

"Hush. It's not too bad for most people, but you have the Keyblade. They're after you for it, but what they really want is your heart. They like strong hearts, and the Keyblade master is supposed to have a strong heart. Sucks to be you." Sora twitched. She said that way too cheerfully for his liking. Maybe she didn't like that he had connections to Shinra. "Well Squall, your turn!"

"That's Leon." Sora swiveled his head so fast he almost got whiplash. Standing there, leaning against the wall, was the man from earlier.

"You!" He reached for his daggers, but found them missing. Yuffie pushed him back on the bed before he could jump off.

"Calm down! He's on our side! Even if he is a jerk!" Leon rolled his eyes and held up a familiar key.

"Hey, that's the key from earlier," said Sora. "It's called a Keyblade?"

Yuffie nodded. "Yeah, we had to get it off of ya to shake the Heartless. Turns out that's how they were tracking you."

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them," said Leon. "But it won't work for long. Still, it's hard to believe that you of all people are the chosen one." The Keyblade disappeared and reappeared in Sora's hands. Sora gave it a weird look. He'd never seen a weapon do that before. "Well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers."

"Okay, I get that something's up and this key is important. Can I have my daggers back and just leave it with you guys?"

Yuffie grinned and handed him his daggers. "Sorry, but you're stuck with it. The Keyblade chooses its master, and it chose you!"

Sora sighed. Of course it wouldn't be easy. "Can you at least explain what's going on?"

"Well, you obviously know about other worlds."

"Yeah."

"All the different worlds are usually kept secret, but since the Heartless have come, the worlds have started becoming connected."

"What exactly are the Heartless anyway?"

Leon spoke up. "Those without hearts. The darkness in people's hearts-That's what attracts them. And every heart has darkness."

Yuffie nodded. "Hey, have you ever heard of Ansem?" Sora shook his head.

"He's a man who studied the Heartless," explained Leon. "He wrote down his findings in a series of reports, but then his world was destroyed and the pages of the reports were scattered to many worlds."

"Can't we look for them?"

"We could, but there are a lot of worlds out there. It would take a lot of time to find them," said Yuffie.

Leon suddenly spoke up. "We do know that they mentioned a key."

Sora looked at the Keyblade. "You mean this? I know it's more effective against Heartless than my daggers, but is that all?"

"We don't know what it is capable of exactly, but we do know that the Heartless have great fear of it. They'll keep attacking you as long as you wield it," explained Leon.

Sora gave the Keyblade another look-over. It didn't look special. "Why did it choose me?"

"Who knows? It has something to do with your heart though," said Yuffie.

"Great..." Sora thought for a moment. "Hey, what happens to the people who the Heartless don't get if their world is destroyed?"

"Usually, they get flung to other worlds," said Leon.

"_Sounds like what Kimihiro said last time." _"Okay, then I'm gonna go looking for my family and friends," said Sora.

"That's the spirit!" shouted Yuffie. Sora tucked his daggers into their hidden sheaths. "You're keeping those?"

"Yeah, I've only had the Keyblade for an hour or two. These'll be better if I have to fight other people, like him," said Sora, pointing at Leon. Yuffie shrugged. Leon didn't seem to care.

"You'll have to learn to use it eventually. Be prepared to fight for your life," said Leon. Sora grinned.

"That's not a problem!" That was when Yuffie let out a high-pitched yelp as a Soldier appeared in the middle of the room. Leon reacted by leaping forward and knocking it out the window.

"Yuffie! Go help Aerith!" Yuffie nodded and ran out a nearby door. "Sora, you're with me!" Both leapt out the window to an alley filled with Soldier Heartless. "Don't bother with the small fry! Just find the leader and take it out!" Then Leon went off destroying any Heartless that came his way. Sora unslung the Keyblade and started doing the same. Oddly enough, despite going in the same direction, Sora and Leon ended up getting separated. Sora just took them out while looking for any Heartless that looked different. Too bad he didn't find any. The only odd thing he found was that the Third District seemed to be deserted.

"_Weird. There were a lot of Heartless around here earlier." _He took a step forward and heard an odd sound. He looked up just in time to have some weird duck and a weird dog land on him. It took a second to recover from the shock. "Ow..."

"The Key!" And then several stone columns rose, blocking any escape paths they might be able to take. On top of each column was a Soldier Heartless that jumped down to attack them. Sora leapt forward and cut one in two. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the duck casting a Fire spell.

"You have materia? !"

The duck gave him a confused look. "Huh?"

"Behind you!" Sora threw the Keyblade at the Soldier sneaking up on the duck from behind. The Soldier was impaled and disappeared in wisps of darkness. Sora immediately dashed over and grabbed the Keyblade before any Heartless could go for him. Fortunately, the Heartless seemed to be all gone. Sora turned towards the duck. "How did you use magic if you don't have any materia?"

"What?"

Before Sora could explain, a pair of metal feet came falling down from the sky. They froze. A metal body with metal arms followed. They got into fighting positions again. A head fell down onto the body and the Heartless sprang to life. Sora's eyes widened slightly.

"_What the-The body and limbs all have different life forces! This could take a while. I'll just go for the body since it's in the middle." _With that plan in mind, Sora jumped forward with a slash to the body. He was caught off guard by one of the hands flying away from the body and punching him into a wall. "Ow..." _"Note to self: It's body parts can separate." _

"Cure!" A green glow surrounded Sora. He immediately felt better. Looks like the two animals were on his side.

"Thanks!" Sora took a moment to take a look at the two. The duck was using magic so he must be a mage. The dog was using...a shield? _"How do you fight with a shield?" _Sora immediately ran towards him. "Hey! The limbs will be able to live separately from the body! One of you go for them!" This got Sora an odd look from the duck, but the dog decided to listen and switched to attacking the feet. Sora returned to attacking the body with wide swings that also hit the arms. He still had to be careful to dodge the arms, especially when they went in a circle, but he was managing to dodge them except for a few minor brushes. The dog was doing a pretty good job too. Both jumped back for a moment after the armor's right arm and left leg suddenly fell apart and disappeared.

"Great! I'm out of magic!" shouted the duck.

"The main body is down to 39%, the hand is down to 13%, and the foot is down to 5%! It won't take much more to get rid of the limbs!"

"Wait! How do you know that? !"

"I'll explain later!" With that said, Sora ran towards the armor and jumped much higher than a human should be able to jump while bringing the Keyblade down on its head. He briefly noted that the dog was now slamming against the remaining arm and the duck was bashing the foot with his staff. He flipped behind the armor and hit it from behind just as its foot shattered. The duck joined the dog in attacking the arm. Sora dodged another swipe from the arm and impaled said arm on the Keyblade, shattering it.

The armor shook for a second before falling to the ground and spinning rapidly. Then it started shooting off all across the ground and it took everything the three had to dodge its movements.

"Blizzard!" Several icicles hit the armor and froze it to the ground. Sora blinked and looked at the smug duck.

"_I thought he was out of magic! Did he have an ether?"_ The three leapt at the armor from all sides and hit it simultaneously. The armor made a creaking sound as it finally crumpled and its helmet fell off. From inside, a sparkling heart came out and flew off as the body disappeared. "Wow..."

"Nice ta meet'cha!" The dog held his hand out. Sora shook it while wondering what he was exactly. "We were looking all over for ya!"

"You were looking for me?"

"They too have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade." Sora turned. It was Leon, along with Yuffie and a woman in a pink dress with green eyes and brown hair in a braid. Maybe she was the 'Aerith' Leon had mentioned earlier.

The two animals nodded and the dog spoke up again. He seemed to be the friendly one of the two. "Hey, why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel."

Sora's face lit up. "You have something that can do that! That'd be great! I need to look for a lot of people!"

"Yeah, you'll probably find your friends," said the duck.

"You sure?"

"Who knows but we need him to help us find the King." Sora twitched at this whispered conversation. It's a well-known fact that mako enhances the senses. Yuffie snickered a bit as she heard it and knew Sora did too.

"Sora, go with them, especially if you want to find your friends," said Leon.

"Yeah, I know Riku's alive, along with the other Tsviets. I'm not so sure about Kairi, but I think she's alive." Sora turned towards the two animals. "What're your names? You never introduced yourselves."

"Donald Duck."

"The name's Goofy."

The two had put their hand on top of each other. Sora grinned and put his hand on top of theirs. "I'm Sora."

"All for one, and one for all!" Sora laughed at Goofy's declaration. Maybe things were looking up.

Meanwhile, it a dark place with many shadowed silhouettes, Sora was being watched.

"That little squirt took down the Heartless. Who'd have thought it?"

"Such is the power of the Keyblade."

"Why don't we turn him into a Heartless? That will settle things quick enough!" This was followed by a cackle.

"And the brat's friends are the king's lackeys. Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them!"

"You're no prize yourself!" This was followed by more laughter.

"Shut up!"

"Enough." A pale woman in black walked up. She held a gold staff with a green orb on top, and she appeared to have horns. "The Keyblade has chosen him. Will it be he who conquers the Darkness? Or will the Darkness swallow him? Either way, he could be quite useful."

Back in Traverse Town, Leon's group was giving Sora's group their good-byes.

"Make sure you're prepared for the journey ahead. We don't know how far the Heartless have spread." Leon was all business.

"You should check out the shops here! They've got some pretty neat stuff! No materia though." She sounded oddly disappointed about the lack of mareria.

"This is from all of us." Aerith gave Sora 100 munny. "Spend it as you see fit. And this is for doing so well against Leon." She handed Sora a bottle with a light blue liquid in it.

"Whoa! An elixir! Thanks!"

"Ah, here's something else." Yuffie gave him a leather harness. "It's so you can keep that key in place without sticking it under your clothes. It doesn't look comfortable."

"Thanks."

Yuffie grinned. "Good luck!"

"I hope you find your friends," said Aerith. With that, the three left. Sora quickly put on the harness and slipped the Keyblade into it.

"Okay, now how were you able to tell how much health that Heartless had?" asked Donald.

"Oh, I can see the life auras of any creature. I guess that includes Heartless." Donald and Goofy looked confused. "All living things have an aura. The stronger something is, the more powerful and bright the aura is. If the aura dims, that means that it is hurt or sick. If the aura disappears completely, it dies."

"Wow! That's amazing!" Sora blinked and looked around for the source of the voice. Something small jumped onto Goofy's hat. Upon closer inspection, it was found to be a little bug in clothes with an umbrella and top hat. "Nice to meet you! I'm Jiminy Cricket, professional conscience. Queen Minne asked me to come along to record your journey."

"Wow, that's pretty cool."

"Can we get back on subject?" asked Donald.

"Oh, right, do you know where we can get some potions and ethers?"

"My nephews run a store near here," said Donald.

"Hey, Sora why're your eyes glowin'?" asked Goofy.

"That's just a weird side effect of mako exposure. Don't worry about it." That done, they went to the Duck Store. Three identical ducks with different colored shirts and hats greeted them.

"Hi Uncle Donald!"

"Hi boys. We need some potions and ethers. How much can we get with 574 munny?" Sora had picked up a lot of munny while fighting Heartless and found a couple of potions.

"Two potions and two ethers."

That done, they left the shop.

"So, where's this airship you mentioned?"

"Oh, the gummi ship is just outside the gates," said Donald.

Sora blinked. "Gummi ship?"

"Yep, wait 'til you see it!" said Goofy.

They walked out the gates, and Sora gaped. The ship looked like it was made out of candy. _"Okay, now I'm worried."_

"You don't know how to pilot it, so we'll be piloting it for now. While Goofy pilots it, I'll teach you some magic, and while I pilot it, he'll teach you some moves," explained Donald.

"Actually, he seems pretty good," said Goofy.

"I'm gonna learn magic that doesn't need materia?" asked Sora. That would be great. The weakness of materia was that you could only carry so many of them and could come to rely on them too much.

"Yeah."

"Well, let's get going then!" With that Sora ran into the gummi ship, ready to start his strange adventure.

**Another chapter done**

Yeah, the FFVII characters are gonna be the same as from the games. That means Cid will curse. Yuffie was initially distrustful of Sora because she thought he was with Shinra, and she pretty much hates those guys. As for Sora's performance against Leon, I realize most people have trouble with the guy there, but Sora has more combat experience and was able to do better this time around, like with Riku. Sora will continue to alternate between his daggers and the Keyblade for a while, but will eventually become more comfortable with the Keyblade. Oh, and the aura thing, that's just Scan. I'm gonna make it so that he's always had that. Now for another Omake.

**Omake: What About the Rest? Part II**

"Hey, hey, you alive?" Azul groaned. What was that annoying voice? He'd been practicing at the target range, and...He couldn't remember what happened. He pried his eyes open.

"Great, you are alive!" The speaker was a teenage boy with dark skin and dreadlocks.

"Welcome to The Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude!" That speaker was another teen with blond hair, glasses, and a hoop earring in his left earlobe.

"What?"

Blondie continued talking. "Yeah, some weird vacuum formed in the middle of the station and you and that cannon thing fell out of it. It was really cool. Must've been some sort of interdimensional vortex or something." Anything after that was gibberish to Azul.

"Don't worry. Richie's a super genius. Most of the time no one can understand him." Azul returned to looking at the dreadlocked teen. "By the way, what's with the bazooka thing?" He jerked his thumb at the cannon, which had been propped up in a corner.

"It's a tank cannon."

The teen's eyebrows arched. "Why do you have a tank cannon?'

"Just tell me where I am."

"Dakota City, famous for its mutated gangbangers."

"Mutated gangbangers?"

"Yeah, there was a chemical spill caused by a gang war. It's caused all sorts of problems for the city. On the bright side, the tourism industry has gone up." Okay, something had to be up with this kid if he thought it was good something like that had helped with tourism. On the other hand...

"Are things like that normal?"

"Yeah, but stuff like this didn't start happening until about 20 years ago, give or take."

"Where can I get information on individuals that I'm looking for?"

"The abandoned warehouse district." Now it was Azul's turn to arch his eyebrows. "This town has some serious problems, and that's where a lot of the problem makers hang out."

"Good enough." He walked over to his cannon and lifted it up with ease.

"Dang...You a bang baby?"

"A what?"

"A metahuman."

"I am a Tsviet."

"Sounds Russian."

"I'm leaving." This boy was getting on his nerves.

"See you around!" Azul had a sudden sense of foreboding, but decided to ignore it. That was Kimihiro's territory, not his.


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I read over my previous chapters and realized there were a bunch of grammar mistakes in them and edited them. The weird thing is, I read over them before I posted them. Maybe I need to be more careful or get a beta or something. I also had to work on an essay on the facehuggers in _Aliens, _another on transposable Alu elements, and now I'm doing one on _Frankenstein. _For now though, I give you chapter six, Wonderland! It may not be that different since they don't interact with that many people in the world and there isn't actually a villain there. They are annoyed by the Cheshire Cat though. Will our heroes make it out with their sanity intact? Let's find out! Once again, I own nothing!

**Pretend it's a line.**

Sora stared out at the strange sights outside the gummi ship. It looked sort of like outer space, only mixed together in a swirl of colors. Sora had finished Donald's magic lesson and now knew how to use the spell Fire. Donald seemed to be a bit surprised that Sora learned it so quickly. Sora just attributed this to his mako blood. Goofy had shown him a combat move on Donald's insistence, but still thought that Sora was already a good fighter. Since Sora had finished his lessons so quickly, he was now free to stare out the window and at the controls. He'd have to ask them to let him try piloting sometime soon. Right now, he was getting bored. "Are we there yet?"

"No."

"How much longer?"

"I don't know!"

"We're just seein' what we can run into," said Goofy.

"Wait, you mean you have no idea what we're gonna find?" asked Sora.

Goofy nodded. "Yep!"

"So, you guys have no idea where we're going? Won't we get lost?"

"Don't worry, it instantly makes a map of the worlds you visit," said a squeaky, high-pitched voice.

Sora blinked. "Who said that?"

"Oh, that's just Chip and Dale, the gummi ship engineers. They keep in contact with us whenever we're in the gummi ship," explained Donald.

"Hey! Here comes a world!" said Goofy.

Sora looked up. It was a world with a pink checkered pattern, fancy hedges, some castle structures, and a little house on the bottom. "It looks a bit odd."

"Aw, they all look weird out here," said Donald. "It shouldn't be as bad when we disembark."

They beamed down onto the world. Only, they were still floating. They seemed to be in a sideways hallway filled with all kinds of stuff. At least they weren't falling. Sora twitched a bit though. This was most definitely not normal. He glanced at his companions. Donald didn't seem bothered by it. Goofy was lying on his side. Maybe this was common where they came from. Just then they landed. Sora and Donald were simply set down. Goofy crashed down. As he was getting up, a white rabbit came running by. "Oh my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! Oh dear, oh dear! I'm here! I should be there! I'm late, I'm late I'm late! The queen, she'll have my head for sure!" He said all this in one breath while continuing to run. The group was silent.

"Is this your world?" asked Sora. How common could worlds with anthromorphic animals be?

"Nope. Ours doesn't have halls like that," said Goofy while pointing up.

"Are we gonna follow him or not?" asked Donald.

Sora shrugged. "Yeah, he's the only one we've seen..." They set off down a hall, only this one wasn't sideways. At the end was a door. Sora opened it and blinked. "Another door?" It was smaller. He opened it and sweatdropped. It was another even smaller door. He opened the third one and twitched. There was another door. _"If there's another door, I'm slicing them up." _Thankfully, there was an opening behind this one. They quickly crawled through into a mostly pink room just in time to see the white rabbit, now much smaller, run through a door. This made all three of them blink. Sora turned towards the anthromorphs. "Is that sort of thing normal?"

Donald shook his head. "I've never seen something like that happen."

"Gawrsh, I wonder how he got so small."

Sora walked over to the door and gave it a look over. It was small, but he figured they could crawl through it. He grabbed the door knob-

"Ow!" And jumped back as the door let out a shout of pain.

"It's alive? !" The doorknob took a look at them and...shook its...head...or the equivalent at least.

"No, no, you're simply too big." Their eyes widened further.

"It talks? !" yelled Donald.

The doorknob yawned. "Must you be so loud? You woke me up."

Goofy waved. "Good morning!"

The doorknob yawned again. "Good night. I need a bit more sleep."

"Wait!" Sora leaned in closer. "How do we get small?"

The doorknob made a movement that seemed to be a gesture to turn around. "Why don't you try the bottle...over there?"

A table and chair appeared out of nowhere. Two bottles, pink and blue, were on the table. The three adventurers stared at for a moment. Then Sora shrugged, lifted up the pink bottle, and took a sip. "Tastes like caramel." Then he shrunk down to a height of about a foot. Donald and Goofy hurriedly drank some too. They were small enough to go through the door now, but there was just one problem.

"Wake up!" Amazingly, Donald's shout wouldn't rouse the knob. Sora didn't think knives would work either. It wasn't locked. It just wouldn't open. Then a bunch of Heartless appeared. There were Shadows and some flying red ones. Sora took a quick glance.

"_Red Nocturne. Absorbs fire attacks and is weak against ice element attacks." _"Don't use Fire Donald! Use Blizzard!" That being said, Sora pulled out the Keyblade and sliced a Shadow in two. Goofy smashed another one with his shield. One of the Red Nocturnes shot a fireball at Sora. A Blizzard hit it and canceled it out. Another Blizzard followed and froze the Red Nocturne before shattering into hundreds of pieces. Sora grinned as he blocked another fireball. These guys were pretty good. Another moment, and they had gotten rid of all the Heartless.

"Well, I guess the Heartless are here. What do we do about it?" asked Sora.

"We can't do any interfering. That would be meddling," explained Donald.

"Yeah, and that's against the rules," added Goofy.

"Wait. Let me see if I've got this straight," said Sora. "We know the Heartless are on this world, but we're not gonna do anything about it because we don't want to meddle?"

"It'll damage the world order," said Donald.

"Screw that. I'm getting rid of these things." That said, Sora decided to start looking for some way to continue forward.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Donald hurried after Sora. "Do you want to destroy what's left of the world order? !"

Sora gave Donald a look. "It seems like it's in pretty bad shape already if there are worlds disappearing. I kind of doubt we can make it any worse."

Goofy decided to try and defuse the situation at this point. "Hey, guys, I don't think there are any other ways out. Maybe we should try that other bottle and look around some more."

This seemed good, so they jumped up onto the table and drank a little bit of the liquid in the blue bottle. It returned them to their normal size. "Okay, let's see if we can find anything." Unfortunately, they couldn't seem to find anything of note. Goofy sat down on a bed for a second. It promptly slid out from under him and into the wall. Sora blinked at this new oddity. "You okay?"

Goofy sat up and rubbed his head. "Gawrsh, didn't know that would happen! Hey...There's a door over here!"

"Really? !" They quickly drank the pink liquid again and walked through the second door. It led to a garden with several high hedges, and what appeared to be a couple of podiums facing each other. There was a large woman with a crown sitting in the higher one. A blonde girl in a blue dress with an apron was standing at the other one. What was really odd was that there were a bunch of cards with arms and feet standing around.

"Are those cards?" Sora wasn't sure what to think about that.

Donald shrugged. "Different world, different rules."

"So, what do ya think is going on?" asked Goofy.

As if to answer him, the white rabbit ran into the garden-court and blew on his trumpet. "Court is now in session!"

The girl blinked in confusion. "I'm on trial? But why?"

She was ignored. "Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!" The rabbit waved towards the large woman with the crown.

"_Queen of Hearts? Does that have anything to do with the hearts?"_

"This girl is the culprit. There's no doubt about it. And the reason is...because I say so, that's why!" shouted the queen.

The girl gaped. "That is so unfair!"

The queen just huffed. "Well, have you anything to say in your defense?"

"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong. You may be queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so..." The girl paused to think of a good term. "So mean!" Seems she was too innocent to use anything worse. The queen was still angry though.

"Silence!" Everyone jumped. "You dare defy me? !"

Sora did not like where this was going. "I think we better help out."

Donald rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but the-"

"Wouldn't that be muddling?"

"Meddling!"

"The court finds the defendant...guilty as charged!" shouted the queen. "For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart..." Sora's eyes widened. He knew what stole hearts. "Off with her head!"

The girl's eyes widened. "No, no! Oh please!" It didn't look like anyone was going to help, and the card soldiers were already surrounding the girl.

"_Screw the world order!" _Sora jumped and landed in front of the girl, brandishing his daggers. "Don't get any closer!" The card soldiers backed off somewhat. No one had ever done that before, and they weren't really sure what to do in this situation. Donald twitched before walking over with Goofy to join Sora. The Queen of Hearts was looking rather furious as well.

"Who are you? ! How dare you interfere with my court!"

Sora glared at her. "She didn't try to steal your heart! She's innocent!"

Goofy nodded. "Yeah, it was the He-" He paused and quickly covered his mouth. Sora sweatdropped slightly.

"Anyway, she's not the one you're looking for."

The queen snorted. "Nonsense. Have you any proof?"

Sora blinked. "Do you?"

"Of course!"

"Well, give us a little time, and I'm sure we can find some."

The queen gave him a look and gestured to one of the cards. It grabbed the girl and pushed her into a cage. "Bring me evidence of Alice's innocence! Fail, and it's off with all of your heads! Gather as much or little evidence as you please and bring it back here when you're ready."

That said, all the card soldiers went back to their previous positions. Donald gave Sora a look. "Nice going! Now we've meddled with this world!"

"The Heartless have already meddled with it!" retorted Sora. "Besides, I can't stand governments like this! They make me sick! And could you really live with yourself if Alice was killed for something that a Heartless did?"

"Uh, guys, since we said we'd get evidence, we should go and get it. Can't take back what we did," said Goofy, demonstrating that while he had a rather goofy personality, he could be smart when he wanted to. Donald muttered something under his breath while Sora sent Goofy a thankful smile. That little spat over, they went through an arch and into a forest full of giant grass, mushrooms, flowers, and a tree.

"Wow, everything's still huge," marveled Sora.

"We still gotta find some stuff to save our necks," muttered Donald. Sora nodded.

"Yeah, I don't want to have to kill anyone." Sora calmly took a quick look around while the anthromorphs froze up. That was not something you expect to hear from a kid, especially in their world. Sora noticed the horrified looks on their faces. "Uh, I come from a pretty violent world so I sometimes say weird stuff. Just ignore it!"

Someone chuckled. "Everyone wants their secrets to be ignored." They jumped and looked around. A striped, purple and pink cat with a huge grin appeared out of nowhere.

"Who're you?" asked Donald.

"Who indeed?" The cat stood up on its hind legs. "Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing!"

Sora raised an eyebrow. "You know who did it? Think you can tell us?"

The cat held up a finger and shook his hand. "The Cheshire Cat has all the answers, but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit, the cat, all lie in darkness."

Sora blinked. Did this cat have something to do with the Heartless? Then the cat disappeared. "Hey! Wait!"

The cat's voice rang out through the forest. "They've already left the forest. I won't tell which exit. There are four pieces of evidence in all. Three are a cinch to find. The fourth is tricky. Big reward if you find them all." Then it was silent. Donald raised an eyebrow.

"Should we trust him?"

"To trust or not to trust? I trust you'll decide!" Looks like the Cheshire Cat was still listening.

"Let's just look for the evidence he mentioned," muttered Sora. And then more Shadows, Soldiers, and Red Nocturnes appeared. The group was starting to get used to the Heartless, so they were able to take care of them without much of a problem. What happened afterwards though...

"Hey..." They blinked. Who said that? "Over here." The only things they could see were grass and a flower. Then the flower lifted its bud up towards them. They jumped in shock. "If you give me a potion, I'll make you bigger." That sounded very odd.

"Um, okay." Sora tossed it into the bud. The flower bloomed, and Sora suddenly shot up to match the tree's height. "Oh..."

"What are we supposed to do now? !" shouted Donald.

"Hey Sora! Can you see anything up there?" shouted Goofy.

Sora glanced around. "There's a pink box and a chest. Hold on. I'll see if I can reach them." He grabbed the chest and opened it. His eyes widened. "There are puppies in here!" _"Poor puppies. Whoever did this better hope Angeal never hears about it."_

"Put them down here!" Sora quickly put the puppies on the ground. They jumped out and started looking around. Sora grabbed the pink box and opened it. He quickly closed it again.

"This one has something that looks like a Shadow's antennae in it."

"That must be what he was talking about! Bring it down!"

Sora carefully put it on the ground. Goofy looked up. "Can ya see anything else?"

"Hold on. I'll check...Well, there's a couple of openings in the foliage up here that might lead somewhere."

"That's nice, but you're still way too big to go through them," said Donald.

Sora sighed. "Yeah, I know. The only thing I can think of is to somehow get some of that liquid that shrunk us." He leaned against the tree. The tree promptly spun around 90 degrees, nearly making Sora fall over. "What the? !"

"You know, I'm starting to get used to that stuff," said Donald.

"I think it's kind of fun. Never know what's gonna happen!" said Goofy.

"There's something on the limb." Sora reached over and plucked it off. It was brown, round, and hard. "I think it's some sort of big acorn."

"Do ya think something'll happen if you eat it?" asked Goofy. He had a point there. Drinking that stuff had changed their size.

"Only one way to find out..." Sora took a bite out of the acorn. Oddly enough, it tasted like a tomato. He promptly shrunk down to his previous height. "Wow, that's convenient...Where'd the acorn go?"

"Who cares? How do we get to those openings?" asked Donald.

"I think we can get to them with the tree. Follow me." Sora grabbed a puppy and jumped onto a tree limb. A tree limb roughly 20 feet off the ground.

"I don't think either of us can jump that high," pointed out Goofy. Donald was gaping. Sora mentally hit himself over the head.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting about that. Uh...Oh! You should be able to get up here if you jump up on those mushrooms." He pointed at some mushrooms growing next to each other at varying heights. One was actually pretty close to the limb he was on. Goofy also grabbed a puppy, climbed onto the shortest mushroom, jumped on it a couple of time, and gave Donald and Sora a thumbs up. Seeing that it was safe, Donald grabbed the last puppy and also jumped onto the mushrooms. A few jumps later, they were on the same limb as Sora.

"Golly! You sure can jump high Sora!" said Goofy.

"Yeah, lots of training." That was all Sora was saying. They made their way over to the closest doorway, and were rather surprised at where it led.

"Gawrsh, this looks familiar," said Goofy.

"It's the room we were in earlier," muttered Donald.

"Only now we're standing on a wall..." muttered Sora. It seemed the laws of physics didn't apply in this world. One of the puppies yipped, ran over to a shelf, and started growling. "Smell something?" Several Soldiers and Red Nocturnes appeared. Another fight ensued, only this time, the puppies helped attack the Heartless. This made the process a bit longer since no one wanted to hurt the puppies, but the Heartless were taken care of.

"We can't keep them with us," said Donald. Now all the puppies were gathered around the shelf and growling. "It's too dangerous for them."

Sora sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"What're you guys growling at?" Goofy walked over and looked at the shelf. "Hey!" He picked up a pink box. "This looks like that box you found Sora!"

"Open it and see what's inside," demanded Donald. Goofy lifted the lid up, and everyone instantly regretted it. Inside the box was a stench. It wasn't a normal stench either. It was a super stench, the worst thing anyone there had ever smelled. Goofy slammed the lid back down. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were all coughing. The puppies were whimpering and pawing at their noses.

"What was that?" asked Sora.

"I don't really know," said Donald. None of them wanted to take another look to see what was making the smell, so they looked around to see if there were any more boxes. They saw one, but it was on another wall.

"Any ideas how to get that?" asked Sora.

"Maybe if we go through another door, we'll end up on another wall," said Goofy. They all went back to the door they'd come in and went through it. They expected to end up back in the forest. Instead, they fell back into the courtyard on one of the tall hedges.

"Hey, how'd we get here?" asked Sora. His companions shrugged. "Hey, there's a couple of chests here..." The first one he opened had a potion. The second one had three more puppies in it. "Huh? Why do I keep finding puppies?" The puppies just licked him.

"Let's just put them in the ship," said Donald.

"How?"

"You see those green circles of light?"

"Yeah."

"We can use them to teleport back into the ship." They jumped down to the circle and put the puppies in the circle. It flared slightly and they were gone.

"They're back in the ship now, right?" asked Sora.

Goofy nodded. "Yep! We should see if anyone wants any puppies when we go back to Traverse Town."

"Can we get back to finding those other boxes?" asked Donald. He was getting impatient.

"Right! Back to the Forest!" shouted Sora. They had to deal with the Heartless again. Then they got onto the tree branches and went through another one of the doors. Now they were on the other wall with the box they had seen before. They took care of the Heartless that showed up and grabbed the box. Sora blinked a couple of times when he saw what was in it. "How do you get footprints in a box?"

"Maybe a Heartless was walking in it." This got Goofy a couple of odd looks from Sora and Donald. After another few looks around the wall, they went back through the door and wound up in the courtyard again. They went to the forest, took care of the Heartless again, and started looking for another door.

"See anything?" asked Donald. Sora was looking from up in the tree branches.

"I don't see anything, just some puddles with grass fences."

Donald sighed. "Where are we supposed to find that last thing then?"

"Maybe we missed it when we were looking around?" suggested Goofy.

"This could take a while," muttered Sora. He leaned against the tree trunk, and suddenly fell through it. Sora winced and stood up, noting that he was standing on a very thin shelf on another wall. Unlike the other two times, his gravity seemed to be normal. He moved forward a bit to make room for if Donald and Goofy dropped in. He started looking around a bit before his eyes landed on a pink box. It was sitting innocently on another small shelf several feet up and to the left of the shelf Sora was standing on. _"That could be a little difficult." _That was when Donald and Goofy fell on the shelf from the ceiling.

"Gawrsh!"

"This place is crazy."

"You guys, stay still. The last box is over there on that shelf." The two anthros looked over at the box.

"Any idea how to get over there?" asked Donald.

"I know! We can throw one of us over there!" said Goofy.

"Actually, that could work," muttered Sora.

"How are we supposed to do that?" asked Donald. Goofy and Sora looked at him. "Wait a minute!" Sora grabbed him. "Wack!"

"Don't worry! I'm stronger than I look! Just grab the box!" And then he threw Donald at the other shelf. Donald hit the box right on target. He didn't grab it, but he did knock it to the ground when he hit it. Donald hit the ground a second later. "You okay?"

"What's the big idea? !"

"He's okay," said Goofy with a thumbs up. The two jumped down to join their friend, just as the Cheshire Cat appeared.

"Well, look what you've found. Nice going."

Sora nodded. "Yeah, now we can prove Alice's innocence."

The cat waggled his finger again. "Don't be too sure! Alice may be innocent, but what about you?"

Sora's eyes narrowed slightly. "What do you mean?" This cat was making some odd comments. Did he know something?

The cat chuckled. "I won't tell. But I'll give you something." He pointed a finger at Sora. The finger twinkled and several sparkles went over Sora's body as he shuddered. "It's fitting for the Keyblade master to have magic." And then he disappeared. Sora looked at his hands.

"_That felt kind of like when I junction Blizzard to my daggers." _Sora held out his hand toward the small bookshelf. "Freeze." Several icicles shot out of his hand and hit the bookshelf, freezing it.

"Huh, looks like he imprinted how to do that spell into your mind," said Donald. "We'll have to work on it a bit when we travel to the next world."

Sora nodded. "Yeah, but for now, let's go save Alice."

"Hey guys, I think a Heartless got stuck in this box. There's a bunch of claw marks in it," said Goofy. Sora and Donald sweatdropped. Had he even paying attention to what they were talking about?

"Let's just get this over with," muttered Donald. The three went back to the court.

"Hey, we got some evidence. Where do you want me to put it?" asked Sora.

"Step up to the podium and put it in front of it," said a card. "You two, stand in the audience box." He pointed at a box off to the side of Alice's cage.

"Why?" asked Donald.

"Because that's what the queen wants, and you'll lose your head if you don't do it." Donald and Goofy went to the audience box. Sora sent Alice a grin.

"Don't worry. We'll get you out of there." She just nodded.

"Well? What did you find?" asked the queen. Sora put the four boxes on the ground before getting behind the podium. "That's quite a bit of evidence, but I'm still not impressed. Cards! Bring forth my evidence!" Three cards came forward and put three more boxes on the ground. Sora twitched. The seven boxes looked exactly the same. "It would be a waste of time to check all of them. You pick one, and I'll decide who's guilty based on the evidence."

Sora twitched again. "You're saying that we went all over the place looking for that, and we may not even use any of it? ! What was the point of finding them then? !"

The queen did not seem to like that Sora was arguing with her. She was getting rather red. "You dare object! Then you will lose your head! Now choose! One box!"

Sora muttered some words that could not be repeated as the cards mixed the boxes up. He took a look at them. His scan ability was showing that they all had a slight aura, but he couldn't tell which was which. He just pointed at a random box. "That one."

"You're sure? No second chances!" Sora nodded. "Then we'll see who the real culprit is!" A card came up and opened the box. A Shadow popped out. It looked around for a second, decided it was outnumbered, and warped to some other location. The queen's eyes had bugged out. "What was that? !" Sora smirked.

"That was your evidence. Alice obviously doesn't have anything to do with it, so she must be innocent."

The queen growled. "Silence! I'm the law here! Article 29: Anyone who defies the queen is guilty!"

"That's crazy!" shouted Donald.

"You * censor *!" Sora should really know better than to call such an irritable queen such a rude word. She turned even redder and pointed at Sora.

"Off with all of their heads!" The effect was instantaneous. The podium disappeared and a tower with several cranks in it popped up in the middle of the courtyard. One of the cards turned one of the cranks, and Alice's cage was pulled up high off the ground and turned around so that you couldn't see her. "Cards! If they touch the tower, it's off with your heads!" That being said, Sora pulled out his daggers, and ran over to the tower, slicing any cards that came too close. Lucky for the cards, they were thick enough that he didn't cut all the way through them, but the cuts were bad enough that they collapsed. Sora used a Fire on one of the cogs just as Donald and Goofy made it over.

"Did you have to do that? !" shouted Donald.

"Probably not, but she was acting like it! I think the cogs are fireproof!" Sora used a Blizzard spell on the cog and slashed a card soldier getting too close to him.

"Hey, where'd you get those?" asked Goofy as he bashed a card's head with his shield.

"Fire! I've always had them. Freeze! I just keep them hidden most of the time. Fire!" Sora was focusing all his magic on the one cog. Donald was blasting any cards that got near with his magic.

"Why're you using those instead of the Keyblade?" asked the magician.

"Freeze! I'm just more used to these. Fire! And there aren't any Heartless here. Freeze!" Sora suddenly hit the cog with his daggers, shattering the cog. "Got one! How 'bout you Goofy?"

Goofy was bashing another cog with his shield when he wasn't hitting cards. "It's coming along!" Sora nodded and moved to the last cog and cast another Fire. Then a Blizzard.

"Why are you switching?" questioned Donald.

"It makes stuff more brittle and easier to break. Give me a hand?" Sora cast another Fire and Donald cast Blizzard.

"I got it!" shouted Goofy. He ran over to keep any cards from getting too close to the other two. Sora and Donald kept casting the spells until Sora smashed it with his daggers. The cage was still up though. Sora side-kicked the tower hard enough to cause a crack.

"Blizzard!" Both Sora and Donald cast the ice spell on the crack. The ice that froze in the crack caused the crack to widen exponentially. Several pieces fell off the tower. Sora hit it hard with the base of a dagger, and it crumbled. Alice's cage fell down and turned around.

"What the-" Alice was gone. "She's gone? !" Sora was confused. How had he missed that?

"She must've been kidnapped while we were fighting," said Donald.

The queen seemed even angrier now. "You fools! Find the one responsible for this! I don't care how!" The cards instantly ran off as they didn't want to lose their heads. The world travelers also retreated to the forest since she was distracted.

"Well, that was a waste of time," said Donald.

"But why was she kidnapped? You don't get kidnapped for no reason," wondered Sora.

"Have you seen Alice?" asked Goofy.

"Wha?" The Cheshire Cat had appeared again, but Goofy had been the only one to notice. The cat shook his head.

"Alice, no. Shadows, yes!"

"Where did they go?" asked Goofy.

The cat pointed. "This way?" He pointed another way. "That way?" He shrugged. "Does it matter? Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows! Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside-down room!" And then he disappeared.

"What do you think he meant by upside down room?" asked Sora. He was really dreading the answer.

"Maybe we're supposed to get on the ceiling of that room?" suggested Goofy. The other two groaned.

"Let's just look for that garden the cat mentioned," muttered Donald. The group walked down the forest trail while taking care of any Heartless that appeared. Sora blinked when he saw an opening in the foliage.

"Hey, wasn't there a boulder there?" asked Sora.

"Yep!" said Goofy.

Donald crossed his arms. "Think that means anything?"

"One way to find out." They walked through and found themselves in front of a house and a long table full of teacups and teapots with several chairs around it. There was also a painting of a brown rabbit in a red suit and a man with a large green hat crying at the head of the table. Sora's eyes widened when he saw it. _"That painting has an aura! But that means that those are real living people! How could something like that happen, even in a world as backwards as this one? !"_

"Sora, are you alright?" asked Goofy. Sora snapped out of it and looked at the two. The both were looking worriedly at him. He quickly put on a smile.

"Sorry, I thought I saw something." He pointed at something that caught his eye. "See? Another chest!" It was on top of another hedge. "I'll go get it!" Sora realized that Donald and Goofy didn't believe him, but he didn't think they'd want to know about the painting. He jumped onto the top of the hedge and opened the chest. A puppy jumped out and licked Sora in the face. "What the?" Two more puppies poked their heads out of the chest. "More puppies? Who the * beep! * keeps putting these things in chests? !"

"Just bring them down here so we can take them back to the ship," said Donald. Sora grabbed the puppies and jumped down to the ground. Goofy was looking over at the house.

"Do you guys think we should check an' see if anything's in that house?" he asked. The other two shrugged. It didn't look like there was anything else here. The three travelers and three puppies walked into the house. It was a very familiar place.

"This is that room again," moaned Donald.

"Only this time we're on the ceiling," pointed out Goofy. The Cheshire Cat then appeared on one of the tables.

"They're hiding somewhere. And the momeraths outgrabe."

"_What's a momerath?" _thought everyone else. The cat kept talking.

"Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the lights." Then he was gone again. Sora twitched a few times.

"Is that cat ever going to stick around so that I can ask it questions?"

Donald raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean 'we'?" Sora was spared from having to answer by several Shadows, Soldiers, Red Nocturnes, and a new type of Heartless appearing. The new type was huge, fat, and had manacles around its wrists. Sora took a quick look at them.

"_Large Body. Immune to physical attacks in the front. Looks like I get to use Blizzard some more." _"Freeze!" Several icicles hit one of the Large Bodies, making it stumble back a bit. Sora jumped behind it and hit it forward with the Keylade, making it land on its face just as Goofy hit it with his shield and destroyed it. "Physical frontal attacks won't work on the big ones!" Goofy took that as a cue to go for the other types of Heartless attacking them. Sora spun around, slashing two Shadows and a Soldier sneaking up on him, destroying them. Donald was busy casting Blizzard to counter the Fire spells the Red Nocturnes were casting. The puppies had apparently decided to sit this out and were hiding under a table. Sora cast Blizzard on the Red Nocturnes directly, destroying them. Then he and Donald teamed up against the final Large Body, both casting Blizzard, freezing it solid. Sora shattered it, and the pieces dissolved into black smoke. By then, Goofy had taken care of most of the other Heartless, except for a couple of Shadows and a Soldier. Those two were easily taken care of. The puppies came out from under the table when they saw the Heartless were all gone.

"Well, now what?" asked Donald.

"That cat said something about turning on a light," said Sora. He looked around. "But I don't see any lights."

"What about those?" asked Goofy, pointing at the tables. Sora gave him a confused look.

"Goofy, those are tables." Now it was Goofy's turn to be confused.

"But we're on the ceiling. Why would there be tables on the ceiling?" He had a very good point there. Sora mentally hit himself over the head for not realizing that and looked at the 'tables' again. Those vases on them could be light fixtures. Sora tapped one. It suddenly lit up. The Cheshire Cat appeared in front of it.

"It's too dim. Make it brighter. One more lamp you need to light." Then he was gone again. At least he was straight this time. Sora quickly tapped the other one. It lit up, and the cat showed up standing on the bulb. "All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon." He made a sweeping motion with his arms. "They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else." He pointed up at the floor. "They might go after the doorknob too." Then he left again.

"That guy is getting on my nerves," muttered Donald.

Sora nodded in agreement. He looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Why would the Heartless go after the doorknob. I get that he's an easy target, but how would that work?"

"Maybe we better go check and see if he's okay," suggested Goofy.

Sora nodded. "Good idea." They went through the door and ended up back in the garden, but this time they had to be sneaky and avoid being seen by the Queen and the cards. After quickly transporting the puppies, they went back into the crazy room, only this time they were actually on the floor and following the laws of gravity and physics. The doorknob was still sleeping. Donald crossed his arms.

"Now what?"

The Cheshire Cat appeared on top of the table. "You'll have a better view from higher up." There was nothing else to do, so they jumped up to the table. The cat grinned at them and put his hands behind his head. "The shadows should be here soon. Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad!" And then he disappeared as a giant Heartless fell from the ceiling and landed crouched on the floor. It stood up as its paper-like arms unfurled. Sora took a look at it.

"_Trickmaster. Powered up by fire. It's got a strong aura. Is it a boss Heartless?" _"Don't use Fire!" That was all he got out before it slammed a couple of juggling pins onto the table, shattering it. The world travelers quickly pulled out their weapons as they landed on the ground. Donald cast a Thunder. Sora seemingly teleported behind it and slashed it down the center with the Keyblade. He was rather shocked when it didn't split in two and had to jump back to avoid being hit as it twisted around, but Goofy tossed his shield and hit it in the back of the head. "Why didn't that kill it? !"

"Blizzard!" Some icicles hit Trickmaster as it tried to turn to face Goofy. "Heartless aren't like other creatures! Thunder! You fight with your heart, so stronger Heartless with more darkness take more to kill! Thunder!"

"_Well, that explains a couple of things." _Sora slashed at its legs, making it collapse for a moment. _"Guess that means that I don't have to worry about the others. They should be able to take care of themselves if that's all that's needed." _The three quickly started bashing its head in a melee attack. It suddenly shot up, knocking them back a few feet as the juggling pins caught on fire. Then it started tossing the pins at the three. Donald dodged, Goofy used his shield, and Sora knocked them away with the Keyblade. Sora dashed in and swiped at the legs again, but this time was met by a flaming pin and knocked back. He pushed himself back up. _"It's faster!"_ "Freeze!" A couple of icicles hit it in the head. The others missed.

"What are you doing? !" shouted Donald while Goofy hit it in the head from behind.

Sora pointed at the pins. "I was trying to put those out!" It might not do much, but at least they wouldn't burn him if he got hit again. "Freeze!" One of the pins did get hit, and it sputtered out. Sora attacked this side. Goofy appeared beside him and rammed it with his shield. He and Sora exchanged looks and nodded. Sora hopped onto Goofy's shield and Goofy propelled Sora towards the Trickmaster. As Sora flew by, he slashed the Keyblade across the its body. This time, it collapsed and started dissolving into black smoke. It disappeared completely as a heart flew off. A sound caught their attention and they whirled around, weapons at the ready. The doorknob yawned.

"What a racket. How's a doorknob to get any sleep?"

Sora twitched. "You just now woke up?"

The Doorknob just yawned. Then something odd happened. The Keyblade jerked Sora's arm up so that the weapon was pointing at the doorknob. A beam of light shot out of the tip and into the keyhole of the doorknob. There was a clicking sound as the beam disappeared and the yawn ended. Sora stared at the Keyblade.

"What was that?" asked Donald, just as shocked as the other two.

"And what was that clicking noise?" asked Sora. An odd shaped piece of something fell from the ceiling. Sora stared at it. "What is that?"

"It's a gummi piece," said Donald.

Goofy picked it up. "It's different from the regular ones."

"Bravo! You're quite the heroes!" They spun around again. The Cheshire Cat was standing there clapping. "If you're looking for Alice, she's not here. She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness."

Sora glared at the cat. "Just how much do you know?"

The cat chuckled. "Oh, I know lots. But don't worry little Tsviet, I won't tell." Then he disappeared while Sora was too shocked to react.

"More made up words," muttered Donald.

"Uh, you okay Sora?" asked Goofy.

"It means color," said Sora, almost too quietly to hear.

Donald raised an eyebrow. "Why do you know that?"

"Can we just go?" Sora slipped the Keyblade into its sheath. "I really want to see if I can find Riku or Kairi in the next world. I'm worried about them." He walked off towards the entrance to the courtyard without waiting for an answer.

Donald crossed his arms. "What's with him?"

"I think that something about that really bothered Sora there. Maybe we better not ask about it," said Goofy. Donald shrugged. Then they followed towards the courtyard so they could leave Wonderland.

**Line break**

I think Sora had a Cloud moment there...Well, they are from the same world and got screwed over by Shinra. Sora can probably do this every now and then. Yes, Sora called the Queen of Hearts a word so bad, not even I know what it means. Let's face it, lots of people would probably like to call her something nasty, although most people wouldn't do it to her face. On a side note, I don't know how the Cheshire Cat knows about Sora being a Tsviet. He just does. He seems half way omniscient in the game, so I figured it wouldn't be too weird for him to know. Did you notice that Sora mentioned Angeal? For clarification, Angeal was dead when Sora joined DEEPGROUND. It's just that a lot of the members believe that he can probably come back to life, or at least cause some sort of influence from the life stream. This will make a slight appearance later. Here is your omake.

**Omake: What about the Rest? Part III**

Captain Jack Sparrow was many things. He had been captain of the Black Pearl. He was an escapee from a deserted island. He was a wanderer looking for his ship and vengeance. He was also a drunk. He drank a lot, and you'd have to drink a lot to impress him, so the fact that the man sitting next to him had drunk a good amount of the bar's alcohol supply was pretty impressive to Jack.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself. Where ya from?"

"Midgar." The green-haired man belched and wiped his mouth. "Although I've been living on Destiny Islands for the past few years." He growled. "The one time in two months I get drunk had to be the night I ended up here. I have no idea how I got here or how to get back! I'm starting to get a little concerned. Usually, Nero would show up by now."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Nero?"

The other snorted. "Freaky looking man wearing a muzzle mask and a straight jacket. And he has a couple of metal wings coming out of his back."

If anyone else, Jack would dismiss the man as drunk or crazy. However, he had seen enough odd things in his life to consider the possibility that what he said was fact. That and he doubted the three swords the other man had were for decoration. The bartender thought differently though.

"I think you've had enough." His head was suddenly sent flying as blood spurted out of his beheaded body before it fell to the ground. Jack looked at his current drinking buddy, who was sheathing one of the aforementioned swords.

"Nice trick." Jack got a grunt. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't. It's Zoro the Verde."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You Spanish?"

"No."

Jack shrugged before grabbing a bottle of rum. "Either way, it looks like the rest of the drinks are on the house."

Zoro grinned. "Now you're talking my language."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven, yeah, I went to Deep Jungle before Olympus Coliseum so this one's coming first. If you have a problem, you'll just have to read chapter eight when it comes out and then read this one. Once again, I own none of this, except for the plot.

**-close enough-**

Our three heroes were once again traveling through innerspace. Donald had decided that Sora didn't need to work on Blizzard since he showed how well he could use it back in Wonderland. Sora tried to get them to show him how to drive the gummi ship, but Donald said no. Instead, Sora played with the puppies they'd found in Wonderland.

"I'm driving next time," said Sora.

"You don't even know how to pilot it," said Donald.

"It can't be that different from an airship."

"Guys, there's a world coming up," said Goofy pointing at the world they were closing in on. It was covered in Greenery, and there appeared to be a waterfall.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's land!" said Sora.

"Yeah, King Mickey might be down there," said Goofy.

Donald snorted. "In a backwater place like this? No way. We should skip it."

Sora gave him a glare. "Someone I know might be down there."

"We're on a mission! We need to find the king!" shouted Donald.

Sora shrugged. "Fine." Then he darted over to the control panel, pushed Goofy out of the way, and tilted the control stick so that the ship started speeding towards the world.

"Sora!"

The gummi ship crashed into the world. Sora got thrown out pretty early and was separated from the anthros. As soon as he regained his bearing, he pushed himself to his feet and looked around. Oddly enough, he wasn't in the jungle. He was in what appeared to be an old wooden building that was in a state of disrepair. He cupped his hands up to his mouth. "Hey! Donald! Goofy!" No answer. _"I guess they landed far away from me." _He took a step forward and froze as he heard something moving behind him. Sora turned but saw nothing. Whatever it was, it knew to be stealthy. He frowned and placed his hands near his daggers while slowly backing towards the exit. Then a jaguar burst out of a pile of boxes and jumped at him with a yowl. Sora pulled out his daggers and crossed them to deflect the jump from the jaguar. He tried to slash the cat when he broke the block, but it jumped back. The two circled one another for a brief moment, each looking for an opening. Then, simultaneously, they leapt at each other. Sora blocked a bite with his right dagger and a swipe with his left, but had to jump back to avoid another swipe. _"This thing's got a weapon advantage on me." _It jumped at him again, but something odd happened. A man ran between the two, and used a rough, handmade spear to throw it back. Sora took a quick glance at the newcomer. He was wearing only a loincloth and had long brown dreadlocks. The Jaguar growled at them, but ran out of the tree house. The threat gone, the man fell into a crouched position and turned towards Sora.

"Sabor, danger."

Sora looked towards the exit. "It's called Sabor?" The man nodded. Sora turned back towards him. "Well, thanks."

"Thanks." Sora blinked. Was this guy copying him?

"Can you tell me where I am?"

The man cocked his head. "Where?"

Sora rubbed his head. This guy didn't seem to know a lot of words. "I'm looking for my friends Riku and Kairi. Riku's about this tall and has silver hair. Kairi's a bit shorter, and she has red hair."

The other man seemed to think a second. "Friends!"

Sora brightened. "You know what I'm talking about?"

"Look for Riku, friends?"

Sora nodded. "Right."

"Kairi, friends?"

Sora froze. For some reason, he was suddenly seeing Kairi walking in the background. "Could you give me a second? I think I'm hallucinating."

"Hallu?"

"Uh..." Sora took another look. Kairi was gone. What was that? "Sorry, I thought I saw something. You were saying something about my friends?"

"Friends here." That got Sora's attention. That was probably the best news he'd heard since this whole mess started.

"Where? !"

"Ooh ooh ha ha ha. Friends here."

Sora gaped. "I don't know what you just said. Think you can just take me there?"

The man nodded and put his hand on his chest. "Tarzan."

"_Must be his name." _Sora put his hand on his chest. "Sora."

Tarzan nodded. "Tarzan go." He turned and ran out of the house in an odd fashion. It reminded Sora of a monkey or a gorilla.

"And I'll follow." He ran after Tarzan, noting that the building seemed to be some kind of tree house, just in time to see him jump onto a branch and start tree-surfing away. _"That looks like fun." _Sora jumped on and followed Tarzan's example. The only problem was that he had to jump over low hanging branches and bash a few rocks. Eventually, the two dropped off the branch and landed in a camp. "A camp? Is someone else here?" Tarzan walked over to a tent. Sora shrugged and followed him inside. Inside was a woman in a white shirt and a red-brown skirt. She had long brown hair too. At the moment, she was writing in a green book of some sort.

"Jane." The woman looked up from what she was writing.

"Tarzan! Oh, and who is this?"

Sora brightened. This woman spoke clear English. "Hi, I'm-" He was interrupted by Jane.

"Oh, you speak English! So, then, you're obviously not related to Tarzan here." She gestured towards Tarzan who was patiently watching them. "Are you here to study the gorillas?"

"_Gorillas?"_

"Highly doubtful." Sora turned towards the new voice and saw a man walk in with Donald and Goofy.

"Sora!" Goofy seemed happy to see him.

"Hey Goofy, Donald."

"What were you thinking? !" shouted Donald. Jane was staring at the two. Who could blame her? There weren't any anthros on this world. Tarzan just cocked his head at the odd animals.

Sora gave Donald a hard look and crossed his arms. "We're looking for my friends too. Just because he's not here doesn't mean they won't be here." The two started glaring at each other. Clayton rolled his eyes.

"A circus of clowns. Not much good for hunting gorillas."

Jane sighed. "Mr. Clayton, we're not hunting the gorillas. We're studying them. This is research." It sounded like she'd gone over this several times before. Clayton just snorted and left the tent. "Well, the more the merrier. Make yourselves at home."

Sora smiled. "Thanks. I think I'll stay here for a little while."

"Us too," said Donald. Sora gave him a confused look. Donald jerked his head towards the tent opening. Understanding, Sora followed the two out of the tent.

Goofy held up a gummi block. "Look at what we found."

"What is it?" Sora still hasn't seen that many gummi blocks so he didn't realize what it was.

"It's a gummi block, like from our gummi ship," explained Goofy.

Sora sent Donald a smirk. "Backwater huh?"

"Fine, the king could be here. We'll look around," said Donald.

"Okay, I'll let you guys tag along." Sora was still upset about how Donald tried to skip the world. "I'm gonna go see if Jane can help me understand what Tarzan is saying." He went back inside. "Hey, Jane, Tarzan keeps making these weird noises. Do you know what they might mean?"

"Well, Tarzan was raised in the jungle by gorillas." Sora blinked. That explained a couple of things. "Communicating with him isn't easy, but he's still learning."

"He was speaking gorilla? He said something and said it was where a couple of my friends are."

Jane blinked. "Your friends?"

"Yeah, but not Donald and Goofy. Riku and Kairi. I'm looking for them, and Tarzan said they were here, but he keeps using a word I don't understand."

"Well, there are some slides throughout the camp. We could show them to Tarzan. Perhaps they can help us out. We can have him tell us if any of them have to do with the word."

"Great, where are they?"

"That's the thing. The gorillas showed up while we were away and decided to hide them, among other things, around the camp, probably as a game of some sort."

Sora sweatdropped at this. Why would gorillas want to do that? He went outside to see if he could find anything and noticed that Donald and Goofy seemed a little drowsy. "Getting sleepy?" Lucky for him, he'd been trained to go for several days without sleep.

"Yep." Goofy stretched a bit. "I think we'll turn in soon."

"Well, I'm gonna look for some slides Jane mentioned and maybe get in a bit of training before I get some sleep. You seen any slides lying around?"

Donald raised an eyebrow. "Can't Jane tell you where they are?"

"She said that the gorillas snuck in and hid them all over the place." This got him a couple of surprised looks. "Yeah, so I gotta find them now." That said, Sora proceeded to look all over the camp and found some slides scattered among the boxes, on the canvases, and there was even one on top of the flagpole. When Sora decided that he'd found enough, he went back in the tent. "Okay, I found some slides. Let's show them to Tarzan."

"One second." Jane put a projector on a box, lit a candle in it, and checked to make sure the projection would be on the screen. "Okay, go ahead and put one in."

Sora slipped a slide in. It was of a majestic looking castle. Jane frowned.

"Odd, I don't remember seeing this one before...Sora?" Sora was staring at the picture with an odd look on his face. "Is something wrong?"

"That looks familiar, but I'm sure I've never seen it before."

"You're probably thinking of a picture of a castle you've seen before. Some look very similar to one another."

Sora nodded. "Yeah, that's probably it." _"First I think I see Kairi, and now this. I hope I'm not developing mako poisoning. I don't think there'd be a worse time."_

"Well, don't you want to look at any of the others?"

"Right." They looked at the others, which were much more normal, like a man riding a bicycle or a man giving flowers to a woman. Tarzan didn't seem to think any of them had to do with the mystery word Sora wanted to know. Sora sighed. "Are you sure none of these have anything to do with where Riku and Kairi are?" Tarzan nodded. "Then how am I supposed to find them?"

Sora heard the tent flap opening. "They can only be in one place then." It was Clayton. Sora raised an eyebrow. Why would he know? "We have been in this jungle for some time, but we have yet to encounter these friends of yours. If they are here, then I'd wager they will be with the gorillas. We've been trying to get Tarzan here to show us where they are, but he's being rather stubborn about it."

"Actually, we didn't leave our islands until a couple of days ago. If they are here, you probably haven't had enough time to see them." No reason to make them think his friends had been here for months.

"Islands?" Jane seemed interested in this.

"Yeah, Destiny Islands, we built a raft to leave, but we got separated." This was technically true. Sora just left out that they never actually used the raft.

"You see Clayton, they'd probably be somewhere near the beach," said Jane, putting her hands on her hips. "Besides, Tarzan doesn't need to tell us where the gorillas are. They're his family after all."

Tarzan was looking between Clayton, Jane, and Sora. Sora was watching Tarzan out of curiosity. Tarzan then looked Sora right in the eye. "Tarzan talk to Kerchak."

Jane looked at him out of confusion. "Kerchak? Who's Kerchak?"

"Gorilla. Leader."

"He must be the leader of the gorillas, perfect. I'll go along as an escort. After all, the jungle is a dangerous place." Clayton smiled in a way that made Sora decide that he definitely shouldn't trust this guy, but he put on a smile himself.

"Actually, I've been trained pretty extensively in how to fight. I think I can take care of myself." He turned to Tarzan. "Thanks a lot Tarzan. You don't know how much this means to me." Tarzan smiled back.

Jane looked out the tent. "Well, it's too late to go out now. Why don't you stay here for the night? That includes you too if you'd like Tarzan. As soon as my father gets back-"

"Goodness gracious!" Sora sprinted out of the tent to see what the shout was, but just saw an old man staring at Donald and Goofy. "What on Earth are these? ! I've never seen any creature like these before!"

Donald twitched slightly. "Hey!"

"Are you capable of speech? !" The guy simply seemed interested in what they were. He wasn't scared at all. Jane came out.

"Hello father. Clayton brought these two here shortly after Tarzan showed Sora here our camp." Sora blanched. They didn't look alike at all! Maybe Jane took after her mother.

Her father didn't seem to notice Sora until just then. "Oh hello there. Professor Archimedes Q. Porter at your service." He held out his hand. Sora smiled. This guy seemed nice, if a little odd.

"I'm Sora." Sora grabbed Prof. Porter's hand to shake it, and the older man nearly jumped out of his shoes.

"My gosh! What's wrong with your eyes? !"

"Glowing eyes run in my family."

"But what's wrong with your pupils?"

"They're just like that. I don't know why."

"His pupils?" Jane took another look at Sora. "Oh my. They're spirals. That's odd."

"Are you gonna just ignore us?" asked Donald. He was starting to get irritable from lack of sleep.

"Oh right, so you can talk. What exactly are you?"

"Donald's a duck, and I'm a-"

"You big palooka! We're not supposed to tell people stuff like that!"

"Oh, right, sorry."

"_Darn, I wanted to know what Goofy is," _thought Sora.

"Daddy, Sora here is looking for a couple of friends of his. Would you mind if the three of them spent the night here so they can look in the morning?"

"Of course not! The more the merrier! Now, where are the spare cots?" Prof. Porter started looking through some of the boxes.

"I'll help." Sora started digging through another box. Within 10 minutes, three extra cots had been set up, and Donald and Goofy were asleep. Sora was amused by the fact that Jane was now sketching them. Tarzan came over to take a look at the picture.

"Tarzan, have you ever seen any animals quite like them?" Tarzan shook his head. "It's strange. I don't think someone with an anatomy like theirs should be able to exist."

"I'm gonna go to sleep now," said Sora. He didn't see any reason to stay up any later. The fighting in Wonderland probably would make up for skipping training today. Sora didn't bother to take off his clothes or boots. He just grabbed a blanket and went to sleep. Morning found Tarzan watching the three of them. Sora whimpered slightly, making Tarzan cock his head. Then Sora suddenly shot up panting. He put his head in his hands. "Why am I suddenly having that dream now?" He paused as he saw Tarzan. "Did you see that?" Tarzan nodded. "Could you not tell anyone about that?" Tarzan frowned slightly but nodded. "Thanks." Sora climbed out of the cot and stretched. "Well, I guess I'm ready to go anytime." His stomach rumbled. "As soon as I get something to eat..."

Thankfully, there was a lot of fruit around, so Sora grabbed some and started poking Donald. After a few minutes, Donald shot up. "What? !"

"It's morning." Sora held out an odd orange fruit. He thought it might be a papaya. "Fruit?" Donald grabbed the fruit and took a bite out of it. Behind him, Goofy yawned and stretched before blinking a few times and waving.

"Good morning!"

"Morning. Here's breakfast." Sora tossed Goofy another fruit, only it was purple. "We should be able to leave once you're done."

This was true. There wasn't really much for them to do. There was just one problem.

"And don't forget about me."

Sora frowned. He didn't really want Clayton to come with them. "Really, we'll be fine. Tarzan's here, and I have experience with fighting large animals." This was true due to the transforming Tsviets.

"Yes, but none of you know how to fire a gun." Sora was tempted to say that it was a requirement for anyone in DEEPGROUND but reminded himself that it was supposed to be a secret. He just turned to Tarzan.

"Well, lead the way." Tarzan nodded and started into the jungle. After a couple of moments, they came across scores of vine-covered trees that Tarzan immediately started climbing. Sora shrugged and followed suit. Donald and Goofy weren't far behind. Clayton wasn't so willing.

"I believe I will find another route to our destination," said the gunman. He then headed off into the jungle away from the group. Sora twitched.

"_He said that he was coming with us for protection, and then he just leaves us? He's up to something, and I don't like it."_

"Hoo Hoo." Sora got to the branch Tarzan was standing on and saw the ape man poking a chest with his spear.

"That new?" Tarzan nodded. "I'll show you how to open it." Sora pushed the top off. Three furry head poked out of the box. Tarzan looked at them curiously while Sora blanched quite a bit. Goofy and Donald finished climbing up just then and saw the puppies.

"Gawrsh. They're here too?"

Donald sighed. "I'll take them back to the camp." He grabbed the puppies and jumped back down to the ground. Tarzan started gesturing towards the vines.

"Grab."

"The vines?" Tarzan nodded, jumped, grabbed a vine, swung forward, grabbed another vine, and turned to look at them. Sora raised an eyebrow. "I've never seen something like that before..." Sora grabbed a vine, swung back and forth a couple of times, jumped and managed to grab another vine in front of him. "Your turn Goofy." Goofy took a deep breath, jumped...and completely missed the vine. He fell down below with one of his weird shouts. Sora sighed and looked over at Tarzan. "Is it safe to drop down from here?" Tarzan nodded, let go of the vine, and dropped down below. Sora followed suit and landed in water that some oddly calm hippos were swimming in. Sora quickly swam over to a miniature island that Tarzan and Goofy were on. Goofy was lying on his back with swirls for eyes. Tarzan was poking another chest. He made a satisfied noise when it sprung open. Three sets of eyes looked up at Tarzan. Sora sighed. He was starting to get used to this. "More puppies?"

Tarzan tilted his head. "Puppies?"

"Yeah. You've never seen a puppy before?" Tarzan nodded and went back to studying the Dalmatians. "We should take them back to camp. Plus we can meet back up with Donald." So, they trooped back to camp, and got quite a surprise.

"They just showed up after you left," said Jane with a shrug. There were nine puppies playing on the ground. Apparently, three more puppies showed up at the camp after the party left. Prof. Porter was looking them over to see if they were healthy. "What happened to Clayton?"

"He went off on his own," answered Sora. Jane frowned.

"That's odd, and after he insisted on going along as protection." Jane thought for a second. "If you run into him out there, don't separate from him again. It's dangerous out there."

"Yes ma'am." Sora looked over where Goofy was distracting Prof. Porter while Donald got all the puppies in the glowing green circle in the tent. Tarzan was watching with a confused look on his face, probably wondering what was happening to the puppies. "Guys, ready?"

Goofy nodded. "Yep!"

"Why'd you guys come back anyway?" asked Donald.

"Oh, we were trying to swing through the vines, but I didn't grab the vine," said Goofy as way of explanation.

"We have to vine swing?" asked Donald. He looked very nervous, probably because they were going to be high up while swinging.

"Goofy fell, and he's okay. I don't think it'll be too much of a problem if any of us messes up," said Sora in an attempt to give Donald some confidence. The duck sighed.

"Let's just go." They went back into the jungle, climbed the trees again, and started trying to vine swing. Key word being 'try'. Tarzan wasn't having any troubles. After all, he had probably been doing this for years. Sora had to get used to the swinging a bit and missed the vines a few times, but he managed to get the hang of it. Donald had trouble jumping and swinging since he didn't have a lot of physical power, but he was able to make do. Goofy was the real problem. He kept missing the vines, overshooting them, and didn't swing far enough. The other three ended up swinging ahead of him. Upon stopping on a set of tree branches, Tarzan suddenly held up his arm, stopping Sora and Donald from going forward. The two followed his gaze and saw some gorillas on a cliff nearby, but not close enough to swing to.

"Kerchak!" A particularly large gorilla with silver hair on his back turned towards the man. Tarzan went into a long series of noises which the other two could only assume was the language of the gorillas.

"Do you understand anything that he's saying?" asked Sora. He didn't know much about Donald, so he figured it was possible.

"No." Well, there goes that idea.

Tarzan stopped making the gorilla noises by then. Whatever he said, it didn't seem to work. Kerchak just looked off at something, got up, and started walking away with the other gorillas following him. "Kerchak! Hoo ah hoo hooo!" Neither of the other two knew what this meant, but Kerchak ignored it, and the gorillas were quickly out of sight. Donald sighed.

"Now what?"

Sora put his hands behind his head while staring off after the gorillas. "I think he was looking towards the tree house. Maybe if we hurry, we can meet them there." Tarzan seemed to brighten a bit and nodded. Just then, the tree shook as Goofy slammed into it. Tarzan and Sora grabbed him before he could fall to the forest below and pulled him up. The anthro chuckled, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Y'know, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!" Sora and Donald both gave him disbelieving looks. Tarzan grabbed a vine and started swinging in another direction. They had to do even more swinging, but Goofy did seem to be doing better. He didn't fall as many times anyway. The other three still had to wait for him when they reached the tree house.

"This is the tree house you mentioned?" asked Donald.

Sora nodded. "I ended up here when we crashed. I got attacked by a jaguar or a leopard or something like that. Tarzan called it Sabor. He came in and helped me out. Sabor still got away though. I wonder what happened to it..."

Goofy finally made it at that point. "Boy, hope I don't have to do that again!" That being said, they walked into the tree house. Their eyes widened. A gorilla was playing with a globe, and Clayton was aiming his rifle at it. Sora reacted immediately and threw a dagger at Clayton. It stabbed into the hunter's left hand, knocking the gun askew as it fired, scaring the gorilla back. Clayton let out a loud shout as he grabbed his injured hand. He glared at Sora.

"Why you little-"

"Kerchak!" The large gorilla was up on the broken floor above looking down at them. Tarzan tried talking to the silver back again. "Hoo aha ah ah hoo hoo. Ah ah ah!" Kerchak turned and walked away. "Hoo ah hoo hoo!" Tarzan turned to glare at Clayton who suddenly looked nervous.

"It's not what it looks like." Clayton eyes shifted to the left slightly. "Ah, there was a snake! Yes, I saved that poor gorilla's life!" His eyes widened as he felt cold steel threatening to cut into his neck. Sora frowned from his position behind Clayton.

"We're going back to the camp. Now."

Given the position he was in, Clayton couldn't really argue. It was a solemn march back to the camp, and the Porters were rather surprised by the sight.

"Sora! What are you doing? !" shouted Jane.

Prof. Porter was looking at Clayton's hand. "What happened to your hand?"

"This little hellion stabbed me!"

"Only because you tried to shoot that gorilla."

"You did what? !" shouted Jane. She looked angry. Prof. Porter just seemed shocked.

"That's not what happened! I was aiming for a snake that was next to the gorilla!" Clayton was sticking to his story.

"I didn't see a snake," muttered Donald.

"Maybe we should discuss this in the tent," suggested Prof. Porter. "Sora, could you put that away? I doubt it's going to help." Sora put away the dagger he'd been holding up to Clayton's neck, but he pulled out the other one, which had blood on it, and a gray cloth. Jane's eyes widened.

"You really stabbed him? !" Sora just nodded and started cleaning his dagger.

"Well, everyone tell us what you saw," said Prof. Porter while he got out some bandages and disinfectant for Clayton. Clayton stuck to his snake story. Sora said that he hadn't seen a snake and admitted to throwing the dagger at Clayton. Goofy and Donald collaborated with Sora, but were disturbed by Sora's actions. Tarzan just nodded when asked if he agreed with the three against Clayton.

"Well, it looks like the evidence is against you Mr. Clayton," said Prof. Porter. Jane was much more open about how upset she was.

"How could you do such a thing? !"

"You actually believe these ne'er-do-wells? You don't even know them!"

"You are not to go near the gorillas again!" Clayton looked like he was going to argue some more, but the looks everyone gave him shut him up before he could even try to argue. He huffed and stormed out of the tent. Jane sighed and turned to Sora. "I still can't believe you stabbed him."

Sora shrugged from where he was looking his dagger over. He decided he'd gotten all the blood off and put it up. "It could've been worse."

"True. I'm glad you weren't aiming for his neck, temple or other such fatal targets." This got everyone to look at Prof. Porter in surprise. He didn't seem like the type to say something like that.

"Well, yeah, I don't have a reason to kill him. Not yet anyway," said Sora. Before he could be asked what he meant exactly, a gunshot rang out. Tarzan jerked up.

"Clayton!" He ran out of the tent with the others following close behind. Tarzan stopped in confusion. All around the camp were odd blue monkeys with black faces, yellow eyes, and a heart crest on their chests. Sora knew what they were.

"Heartless!"

Jane looked at him in confusion. "What?" The blue monkeys attacked. Sora knocked one back with the Keyblade and took a look with Scan.

"_Powerwild. Doesn't look like they have any special abilities, but they are stronger than the Soldiers we've been fighting." _"Careful! They're dangerous!"

"They must be attacking us for a reason!" said Prof. Porter. He blanched when Tarzan impaled one with his spear, and the monkey dissolved into black smoke. "What in the-"

"They're not real monkeys!" shouted Donald while he called down lightning on a Powerwild. Goofy threw his shield at one, knocking it to the ground before bashing it in the head. Sora slashed across another, causing it to dissolve with a shriek. Tarzan grabbed another, and slashed his spear so that the Heartless's throat was slashed. Oddly, this didn't kill it, but it was killed when Tarzan slammed its head into the ground. The two researchers were in shock.

"What were those?" asked Jane. "And how did you make lightning strike just now?" Before anyone could try to explain, Tarzan ran off. Sora and Goofy ran after him. Donald waited a moment.

"You guys stay in the tent!" Then he went after the other three. Tarzan had run into a bamboo thicket. There was a gorilla there surrounded by Powerwilds. Tarzan immediately started knocking them away. Sora sensed an attack from behind, spun, and blocked. It was an orange monkey with a bow on its head.

"_Bouncywild. It's not as strong as the others." _It was a lot faster though. It was dashing all over the place and leaving behind banana peels. Sora cast a Fire to stop it and then split it in two. He then helped get rid of the other Heartless. Tarzan made some gorilla noises in a concerned tone. The gorilla made some noises in reply and left. Tarzan immediately ran off again.

"Hey! Wait up!" shouted Donald. They followed Tarzan again. This time, he'd run to an area full of cliffs. Once again, there was a gorilla surrounded by Powerwilds and a Bouncywild. They made quick work of the Heartless and Tarzan checked to make sure the gorilla was okay. Once he was sure it was okay, he ran off again. The three travelers ran off after him. "Why is he running all over the place?" Donald seemed to be getting tired of running all over the place.

"Ya know, I bet these gorillas are Tarzan's family," said Goofy.

"That makes sense. I'd do the same thing if I thought my family was in trouble," said Sora. They probably wouldn't need it, but he'd do it anyway. He didn't want anything to happen to them that he could prevent. "Let's help him save his family!"

Tarzan ran back through the camp and into the jungle. There was another gorilla in trouble there. They got rid of the Heartless. Tarzan checked on the gorilla again, and started climbing a tree. At the top, in a canopy, was yet another gorilla. They took care of the Heartless and continued on their way. This time, Tarzan took them to the tree house, where a gorilla was surrounded by Heartless inside the house. They got rid of all the Heartless, and Tarzan finally seemed to calm down after he made sure that the gorilla was all right.

"That's the last of them?" asked Sora. Tarzan nodded in affirmative.

Donald let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."

"What're you looking at?" Goofy was talking to the gorilla, which was messing with a chest instead of leaving. It was apparently comfortable enough around them that it didn't think it needed to leave. Tarzan walked over and opened the chest. Three puppies poked their heads out of it. The gorilla and puppies looked at each other curiously and started sniffing each other.

"More of 'em? Well, let's get them back to camp." Thus, Donald and Goofy were introduced to tree surfing. They got a surprise at the camp.

"Hey, these Heartless are actually harmless!" said Sora. Around the camp were four heartless that looked like they were wearing white dresses and red turbans. _"White Mushrooms?" _ Tarzan poked a nearby mushroom that was fanning itself. It promptly stomped in anger, twirled and disappeared. Tarzan looked confused. "I think they're similar to a monster from my home world. You do what they want you to do, and they give you useful items." Sora had never actually fought a magic pot, but he knew what to do at the very least.

"They don't talk," said Donald in a 'You're kidding, right?' tone of voice.

"I think they're playing charades!" said Goofy. That did seem to be what they were doing. Sora looked at a nearby one the puppies were sniffing curiously. It was shivering. He shot a Fire spell. It jumped and waved its arms happily while a bell type sound went off.

"What was that?" asked Donald.

"Beats me," muttered Sora. Now the mushroom was fanning itself. "Freeze." The mushroom jumped happily as the icicles hit it as the bell went off again. Then it drooped over while a yellow light appeared over it. "Okay, I don't know what this is."

"Thunder." A bolt hit the mushroom. It did a little dance as the bell rang again, reached into a pocket (Did Heartless even have pockets?), pulled out several balls of munny and a couple of items, then spun and disappeared. Sora picked up the item, a thunder shard.

"Why do they keep dropping stuff like this?" The Heartless kept leaving weird stuff behind when they were beaten, and Donald insisted on picking them up.

"Dunno, but we can use them to make useful stuff," explained Donald.

Sora nodded and stuck it in a pocket. Then he walked over to a shivering mushroom. "Fire." It shivered again. "Fire." Shivering again. It must be cold or something. "Fire." It did a little jig, pulled out the items, and disappeared. Sora blinked. This one left behind more items. Sora picked up the spherical jewel that seemed to have a fire dancing in it. "Whoa..."

"It's a blaze gem. It's another ingredient in item synthesis," explained Donald. Sora picked up the other odd item. It appeared to be a ruby with writing in it in an odd language Sora didn't recognize. He pocketed it and went over to the last mushroom, which was fanning itself.

"Freeze." It did the jig, and then dropped to the ground. "Uh, Donald?"

"Fine, Cure." The mushroom bolted up and started fanning itself.

"Freeze." It did a little dance, pulled out the items, and disappeared. The items were a shard, and a gem that was blue and cold to the touch. Tarzan looked at the gem interestingly, probably because he'd never seen ice before.

"Uh, shouldn't we see if the Porters are okay?" asked Goofy. That seemed to snap Tarzan out of it, and he ran in the tent. He was closely followed by the travelers.

"You're back!" Jane looked relieved. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, Tarzan just was worried about his family," explained Sora.

"I say, what exactly were those?" asked Prof. Porter. He seemed rather worried.

"They're Heartless, the darkness in people's hearts given form."

"Sora! World Order! Remember? !"

"They're already here!"

"Is something wrong?" asked Jane.

Donald sighed. "Oh forget it. I really don't think Sora cares."

Sora grinned slightly before explaining. "They go after people's hearts. If one of them kills you, then you become a Heartless. They go after the hearts of worlds. We need to stop them before they do this, although, we're not sure how to do this quite yet."

Prof. Porter seemed rather thoughtful. "That's rather incredible. Quite unbelievable. If I hadn't seen them..."

"Clayton's still out there!" blurted out Jane.

"Gawrsh, you're right."

Sora sighed. "We'll go look for him. You guys stay here. There's probably more Heartless wandering around."

After transporting the puppies to the gummi ship, and shocking the newly informed individuals, the three travelers walked out the tent with Tarzan. After a quick debate, they decided to check in the bamboo grove and cliffs since they were much smaller in area than the rest of the jungle. Immediately upon entering the bamboo grove, they found a clue.

"Clayton." Tarzan walked over to the pipe on a rock.

"It's Clayton's?" Tarzan nodded. Sora took a few steps forward to look before he and Tarzan tensed up.

"You guys okay?" asked Goofy. Sora suddenly spun around and pushed Goofy to the ground just as a large cat went flying through the air where the anthro had been with a yowl.

"Sabor!" Tarzan attacked the large cat with a swipe, but had to use the shaft of his spear to keep from being bitten. Donald got out of his state of shock and cast a Fire spell. Sabor yowled and leapt back to avoid a push from Tarzan. Sabor circled, now more cautious of the odd looking duck. Sora pulled out his daggers and ran forward in an attempt to slash the cat, but Sabor jumped into the surrounding bamboo. The four backed up so that they surrounded the rock.

"That was Sabor, huh?" asked Donald.

"Yeah, but it's just a regular animal. It should be pretty vulnerable to our attacks," said Sora. At that moment, Sabor jumped out of the bamboo at Goofy. Fortunately, Goofy brought up his shield quickly enough to keep Sabor from clawing him, but it did leave marks on the shield. Donald quickly cast another Fire spell. Sabor let out a yowl as it knocked him away from Goofy. Tarzan immediately tried to ram his spear through Sabor, but the large cat moved enough so that it only left a long cut on its side. Then it tried to jump on Tarzan, but the man blocked it with his spear again. "Hold it still!" Sora appeared behind the large cat and slammed his daggers into Sabor's neck. The large cat to jerk away, but it was too late, and just caused the knives to cut into its neck more. Then Sora jerked his hands back, slitting its neck open. Sabor yowled as blood spurted out of his neck for a couple of seconds, getting all over Sora and Tarzan. Then Sabor started thrashing as blood continued to run from its neck until it was just still. Sora looked at his daggers. "I just cleaned these."

"You're covered in blood!" shouted Donald. Both he and Goofy were wide-eyed. Sora and Tarzan weren't really bothered by it. Tarzan went over to Sabor for a second before nodding.

"Sabor. Dead."

"Well, I guess that's good." Sora wiped his daggers off on his pants legs and sighed. That would have to do for now. "Sorry guys, I'll have to wait 'till later to clean up." The two anthros just nodded. Tarzan suddenly looked in the direction of the camp and frowned.

"Camp. Wrong." Then he ran off. Sora turned towards the other two.

"You heard him. Better snap out of it. This is the jungle. Animals are killed here for survival every day. I bet Sabor will be gone by the time we get back." Then Sora also started for the camp. The two anthros looked at each other, gulped, and followed the other two towards the camp. They had to deal with more Heartless around the camp, but that wasn't a problem. What was a problem was the tent.

"Where'd they go?" asked Goofy. The Porters were gone. Tarzan was looking around rather agitated.

"Tarzan? Is something wrong?" asked Sora. Tarzan nodded.

"Something coming. Jane, danger. Jane near...near tree house." Sora wondered how Tarzan could know this, but decided not to question it.

"Well then, lead the way!" Tarzan nodded and ran out of the tent with the others following. They ran through the jungle, and started climbing more trees. Then they did some vine swinging. Eventually, Tarzan led them to a clearing that had a hollowed tree in the center. In the tree were Jane, Prof. Porter, and the gorilla from the tree house, but there were vines covering the opening, so it was immediately assumed that they were prisoners. There was also a giant pulsating black fruit hanging above the opening. Jane was the first to see them.

"Tarzan!"

"Look out!" shouted Prof. Porter. Scores of Powerwilds appeared out of nowhere. Of course, they started fighting them off, but every time one was destroyed, another would take its place.

"_They just don't stop! Where are they coming from? !" _Sora's eyes flew to the fruit. _"That's it!" _"Fire!" A fireball hit the fruit. It led out a roar of pain. Fruit doesn't roar. "It's the fruit! We need to get rid of the fruit!" This was easier said than done. They still had to deal with the Heartless that were continuing to stream in. This meant they had little time to attack the fruit. Sora used all his magic on the fruit between attacking the Powerwilds. Donald used as much magic as he could, but then ran out of magic and had to keep the Heartless back with his staff. Goofy ran over to his friend to help out while knocking away any Heartless that got too close. Tarzan seemed to be focusing on slashing his spear across Powerwilds' chests or impaling them with jabs. Then, without warning, he threw it at the fruit with a shout. It cut through the fruit's stem, and sent the black fruit to the ground, where it started to disintegrate. "Wow, good aim. Hm?" The Powerwilds were starting to disintegrate as well. "Are you telling me the Heartless were brought here by a fruit? !" The vines over the tree opening disintegrated and the three occupants quickly got out of it. Tarzan went over to them with a concerned look on his face.

"Okay?"

"Oh, yes, we're okay now," said Prof. Porter.

"Tarzan, Sora, you're both covered in blood," said a rather shocked Jane.

"Yeah, we got attacked by a big cat. What happened to you guys?"

"Well, Clayton came into the tent," said Jane. She seemed a little confused. "I...I don't really remember what happened after that."

"I'm afraid that it's the same for me," said Prof. Porter. The gorilla said something. Tarzan translated.

"Gorillas trapped. Terk ran." Terk was presumably the gorilla.

"So this is that jerk's fault!" said Donald while hitting his hand with his fist.

"It makes more sense than the evil fruit," muttered Sora.

"We have to save the gorillas!" said Jane. "Do you think you could...?" Sora gave a salute.

"Of course! Tarzan just needs to show us where to find them."

"Tarzan go." Tarzan started climbing down the tree. Jane gave the three travelers a worried look.

"Be careful." They nodded and went after Tarzan. They had to deal with even more Heartless, which was starting to be a problem, but they used some potions and ethers to recover before they were too overwhelmed. After a few minutes, they arrived at the cliffs. This time, there were gorillas in a circle with Powerwilds surrounding them. Clayton had his rifle raised and aimed at the gorillas. It was knocked away by a flying dagger.

"Didn't you learn last time? !" shouted Sora. Clayton gave them an odd look, like he wasn't quite seeing them. "Clayton?"

"Not Clayton! Ooh ooh ha ha ha! Not Clayton!" What did Tarzan mean by that? Sora just pulled out the Keyblade as Clayton pointed his rifle at them and the Heartless jumped towards them. Sora deflected a shot and loped off the head of the Powerwild about to land on him. Beside him, Tarzan caught a Powerwild with his spear, flipped it onto the ground, and broke its neck. Donald cast Thunder, catching several in midair. Goofy threw his shield like a discus, slicing through a Heartless's chest before it returned to him. Sora and Tarzan ran forward and slashed through two that were left. Goofy ran forward, bringing his shield back to hit a Heartless with it just as a shot rang out. Sora's eyes widened as blood started to quickly seep through Goofy's shirt as the anthro collapsed.

"Goofy!" Something odd happened to Sora. What looked like wisps of smoke surrounded him as he bowed his head. Then he lit up for a split second as his head jerked up. Now, he was different. His clothes had turned blue with a flame pattern on his jacket and the sides of his pants. His pupils had also turned blue, making his eyes looked like they had no pupils. The wisps surrounding him were almost invisible now, but looking at them closely would reveal that they were now blue. The most noticeable thing was that he was now floating a few inches off the ground with blue sparkles around his feet. "Cure!" A green glow surrounded Goofy. The anthro sat up and patted his chest a couple of times. Sora whirled the Keyblade around so that it was pointing behind him and shot a Powerwild that was coming up behind him through the chest with a blast of pure magic. Then Sora turned around and pointed the Keyblade at Clayton with a look that would send Heartless running in fear. "You're going to pay for that."

Donald was rather shocked by this. Sora had suddenly gone and used Cure, something he shouldn't know how to use yet. That wasn't all. Sora seemed to have somehow changed most of his physical power into pure mana, something which bordered on the realm of the impossible. Goofy was just in shock due to being shot. Tarzan looked between Sora, Goofy, and Clayton. He didn't know why Sora had suddenly changed in appearance or how he had healed Goofy, but the most pressing thing was Clayton at the moment since he was threatening the gorillas. Tarzan rushed forward to attack Clayton, but something invisible knocked him back. Clayton smirked as he climbed onto something that was invisible while Sora looked at it with a frown.

"There's a distortion where the Heartless is. It's not completely invisible." The dead calm of Sora's voice was a bit disturbing to the anthros, but Tarzan seemed undisturbed and got the basic idea. He dashed forward with a shout and swung forward with his spear. Something black stained it, so it seemed he hit the Heartless, but was knocked back again. This time he easily recovered and landed on his feet. Sora started firing more blasts of magic, but he wasn't aiming for the Heartless. He was aiming for Clayton. The blasts hit Clayton, knocking him off his impromptu steed. Sora frowned. _"Those should've gone right through him. Something's wrong."_ Goofy and Donald recovered from their shock about that time, and joined in. As Tarzan went in for another swipe at the invisible Heartless, Goofy jumped in and took the brunt of the counterattack with his shield. Donald cast Thunder on Clayton while Sora glided behind the gunman and fired off a powered up Fire spell that was more like a Fira. Then he zoomed up right next to Clayton and fired a blast of energy at him point blank. Off to the side, the invisible Heartless suddenly became visible, revealing that it was a large chameleon like Heartless with the familiar crest on its chest.

Now that they could see its attacks and dodge them, Tarzan and Goofy started focusing more on offense. Goofy jumped and uppercutted it with his shield while Tarzan stabbed it in the chest. The chameleon swiped at him, but Tarzan jumped back and then jumped forward with a shout to stab it in the stomach. Sora was being just as hard on Clayton. He wasn't letting up on his blasting attacks, and he was gliding out of the way before Clayton could even aim at him. Donald was also continuing to cast spells, but whenever Clayton tried to hit the duck, Sora would appear and knock the bullets away and then cast Fire or Blizzard. _"That's enough." _Sora appeared in front of Clayton with the Keyblade pulled back. Sora's clothes suddenly turned back to normal as he swung the Keyblade forward and knocked Clayton back several feet. Clayton growled but then smirked and brought his gun up. Sora was no longer floating, so he probably wouldn't be able to dodge it. What Clayton didn't notice was that Sora had knocked him very close to the chameleon Heartless. The injured Heartless was getting confused and looking for something to heal its injuries. The closest vulnerable heart was Clayton's. It lumbered towards the man, only to be impaled where its heart would be by Tarzan's spear. It went slack and fell forward. Clayton, realizing something was wrong, turned just in time to see the Heartless fall on top of him and crush him. As the chameleon disintegrated, Clayton's body was nowhere to be seen.

"Clayton?" Tarzan seemed a little confused.

"He lost himself to the darkness. He's as good as dead now," explained Donald.

"Yeah, that injury Sora gave him earlier was gone. He didn't have any magic to heal himself, so something must've happened to change him," said Goofy.

"He probably wasn't very far from becoming a Heartless himself," finished Donald.

Sora walked over to the dagger he'd dropped earlier and put it back in its sheath. He turned to Goofy. "Are you okay Goofy?"

Goofy smiled and nodded. "Yep, right as rain. When'd you learn Cure?"

"Actually, that's a pretty good question. I'm not sure myself." Sora mused for a second. _"I've seen Donald use it a couple of times. He never explained how to use it though. Maybe it was embedded into my mind one of the times when I used materia? It would make sense considering what they think I am. But what if it's something else? It could be that my Wisdom Drive just instinctively knew how to use the spell. It could even be caused by the Keyblade for all I know. I'll just have to ask about it next time I see an expert." _ "Hm?" The gorillas were looking at them, and Kerchak, Terk, and the Porters had arrived.

"What happened?" asked Jane. "Did you kill-"

"I think it's better if we don't know, my dear," said Prof. Porter.

"The gorillas are safe," said Sora. Kerchak looked around at the gorillas that had been gathered there. They seemed to smile. Kerchak nodded and grabbed Sora. "Huh?" Sora was thrown with a shout over the cliffs. Kerchak turned towards the now very nervous anthros. On the other side of the cliff, Sora got up from where he'd been thrown. "What was that?" Goofy suddenly landed next to him with one of his weird shouts. "Goofy?" Donald landed on the other side of him with a squawk. "Donald?" Tarzan landed behind them holding Jane and Prof. Porter. Prof. Porter's eyes lit up.

"Why, this is...a nesting ground!" Sora looked around and saw that there were indeed leaves arranged into nests all around. Tarzan nodded.

"Tarzan home."

"I see...Since we saved the gorillas, their leader decided it was safe for us to know the location of their nesting grounds," said Jane.

"_And Riku and Kairi might just be here."_ Sora started walking around, looking for his two friends. Donald ran up to match pace with him.

"Hey, what was that you did back there?" asked the magician.

"That was my limit break," said Sora, as if it was nothing important.

"Huh?"

"You don't have them in your world?" Donald shook his head. Goofy saw that Sora was probably going to say something important and jogged up to them to hear. "They're special attacks that only especially strong individuals can perform. It usually takes certain stimuli to activate a limit break, such as being in mortal danger or strong emotions."

"Oh, you mean like when Clayton shot me," said Goofy, looking at the red stain surrounding the hole in his shirt. That had been very close.

"Yeah, some people think they're activated by a surge of adrenaline. Anyway, limit breaks are more or less unique to the individual. I have two types. The type you saw was only where I change attributes of one type to another. That one changes physical attributes to more magical attributes. I also have one that sacrifices magical ability in exchange for enhanced physical ability. The other type requires me to attack with another individual. Our auras synchronize, and we do a powerful attack that is powered by my magic. The attacks vary as much as the individuals I do these with. I can only do this with people I'm very close to, so I can't do it with you two, not yet at least."

"Can a lot of people do it where you're from?" asked Goofy.

Sora shrugged. "I'm not sure. I was around people who were capable of it, but they were all in the military. I don't really know how common it is for a person to be able to use a limit break...Huh? Whoa..." In front of them was a large tree covered in blue butterflies that almost seemed to glow. Tarzan came up to them.

"Ooh ooh ah ah ah."

"I don't see Riku and Kairi. I don't think they're here..." said Sora.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" asked Goofy. Jane heard him as she was coming up and cocked her head to the side.

"The waterfalls are echoing all the way up here."

"Ooh ooh ah ah ah. Friends there. See friends," said Tarzan. Sora looked at him in confusion.

"Oh, I get it," said Jane. "Ooh ooh ah ah ah is gorilla for heart. Friends in our hearts..."

Tarzan looked over at Jane. "Heart..."

Sora sighed. "That means Riku and Kairi aren't here then. He was saying that they're in my heart."

Tarzan nodded. "Friends, same heart. Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends."

Sora was silent for a moment as he thought. He hadn't been very friendly towards Donald or Goofy, especially Donald. Sora, scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, and turned towards the duck. "I'm sorry about earlier."

Donald sighed. "I'm sorry too."

Goofy smiled and clapped both on their shoulders. "All for one and one for all, right?"

Then the glow on the tree glowed a bit brighter. Everyone turned to see the butterflies flying away, revealing a pattern on the bark that looked like a keyhole. The Keyblade suddenly appeared in Sora's hand, and jerked his arm up so that it was pointing at the keyhole. A beam came out of the Keyblade and went into the keyhole, disappearing as a clicking sound was heard. There was silence as everyone tried to figure out what that was exactly. Then Terk went over to Donald with a couple of little hearts floating over her head. Jane chuckled.

"I think someone's got an admirer."

Donald's eyes widened and he let out a loud squawk. "No no no no!" he shouted while waving his hands. "Daisy would kill me!" Everyone just laughed. Tarzan picked up an odd something that had fallen in front of the tree. It looked odd. Maybe one of his new friends could tell him what it was.

What they were unaware of was that they were being watched by some rather dark figures.

"What drew the Heartless to that world?"

"The hunter lured them there," said the frightening woman. "It was his lust for power that was the bait." She shook her head with a condescending smile on her face. "But it seems the bait was too tasty for his own good."

One of the other figures laughed. "Yeah, he got chomped instead!"

"A weak-hearted fool like him stood no chance against the Heartless. But the boy is a problem. Not only did he find one of the keyholes, but he also seems to be much more dangerous and capable of fighting than we first thought."

"Buddy, you don't know the half of it! One of the guys at the Coliseum knows about him, and he told me all sorts of things!"

"Fear not." The woman made an image of the travelers appear on the table. "Even if he is stronger than expected, he is also more prone to the darkness, and it will take ages for him to find the rest of the keyholes. Besides, he remains blissfully unaware of our other plan."

"Yes, the princesses..."

"Yes, they are falling into our hands, one by one." She looked over to the side as Alice suddenly stumbled forward from an unknown place. "Speaking of which..."

Back in Deep Jungle, the travelers had decided to spend the night after all the things that had happened. Tarzan and Sora had finally cleaned the blood off themselves, Sora using some sort of cleaner to get it out of his clothes. Tarzan had also shown them the item he found.

"It's a gummi block," said Donald.

"It's not one we've seen before," said Goofy.

"But it's not the King's either," said Donald, a bit depressed.

"What's it used for then?" asked Sora.

"Dunno," muttered Donald.

"Maybe Leon'll know," suggested Goofy.

"Maybe," said Donald. "Guess we'll go back to Traverse Town then."

"Is your ship nearby?" asked Jane.

"Uh, yeah, don't worry," said Donald. Sora had only mentioned how there were different worlds, and he'd like to keep that information to a minimum.

"Happy trails then!" said Prof. Porter. He was already getting ready to leave to observe the gorillas.

"Sora, Tarzan, friends." Tarzan handed something to Sora. The Tsviet took a look at it. It was a key chain with a charm that looked like one of the blue butterflies from yesterday and a vine 'chain'.

"Where'd you get this from?" There wasn't anywhere around to get something like this, and Tarzan didn't strike Sora as someone who could make something like this in just one night. Then, some light shot around Sora's right arm. It formed a thin chain, wrapped around Sora's arm with no clear beginning or end. The key chain Tarzan had just given him was attached to one of the chains as a charm, only several sizes smaller. "What the?"

"Strange things seem to happen to you, eh?" said Prof. Porter. He seemed to have gotten used to the things that were going on. So had Jane and Tarzan, although the former was still eyeing the odd chain.

"Yeah," said Sora. "I'll try to figure it out later while we're on our way back."

"Yeah, we should really get going," said Goofy.

"Feel free to come see us again," said Jane. So, the two groups parted ways. As soon as they found a glowing circle, the travelers beamed up to their gummi ship.

"So, any ideas?" asked Sora while staring at the odd chain.

"The chain Tarzan gave you looks kind of like the chain coming off the Keyblade," said Goofy. Sora pulled out the Keyblade and checked. Goofy was right, they did look similar, but with different charms. Sora was suddenly struck with an idea. He removed the key chain from the end of the Keyblade and put it on the chain. The links on the charm disappeared, simply leaving the charm, which shrunk to a much smaller size, behind on the chain. Sora then removed the charm he'd just received from Tarzan. As the vine reappeared on it, he attached it to the Keyblade. In a flash of light, the Keyblade changed form. It was now longer and appeared to be made of wood with five teeth and a couple of spikes on the guards. "Jungle King."

"Huh?"

"That's the name of this Keyblade," explained Sora, wondering how he knew that.

"Then, what was it before?" asked Goofy.

"Kingdom Key," said Sora. Where were these names coming from?

"That's one more thing we need to ask about," said Donald.

"Who'd've thought the Keyblade could change its form?" said Goofy with a grin on his face.

"Well, back to Traverse Town then," said Sora. "I get to drive this time!"

"No way!" shouted Donald. "I gotta make sure you can cast Cure while you're normal!"

"Oh come on! I wanna drive!"

"No!"

Goofy sighed at the argument that was quickly becoming routine. Looked like it was gonna be a little while before they left after all.

**-End chapter-**

Well, that's chapter seven. Yes, I put in Prof. Porter. I didn't see any reason for Square Enix to leave him out of the game, so I put him in. I think he came off as being a silly man with a more serious side. And you read that right. Sora can already use two of his drive forms, but only two. He won't be getting anymore until the events of KHII. He also won't be using any limits in this story because he doesn't get close enough to any of the characters due to his current nature. He'll change though and be more trusting eventually.

I would like to say something about the upcoming omake. I did not base Seren off of those Claymore women. I just wanted her to have silver hair and eyes and a huge sword. I didn't realize how much she resembled a Claymore until after I read a volume of the manga. Then I realized how fun it would be if she was mistaken for one. The only thing is, I've only read one volume of the manga, so I won't go too far into it. You probably won't be hearing anything more on them in this story.

**Omake: What about the Rest? Part IV**

Seren frowned. One second she was gathering food for the cache, the next she was surrounded by darkness. She'd assumed it was Nero, but it looks like it wasn't. She was in the middle of a wasteland. Seren still had some food in her arms, along with a couple of bottles of water, but there was only one thing on her mind. "Who am I supposed to train with now? !" The irate Tsviet chose a direction and started storming in that direction. After a couple of days, and after most of her food and water had been consumed, she came upon a village. It didn't look very special. The only odd thing was nobody was outside, which was very odd in Seren's opinion. There should be someone out here for work at the very least. Just as she thought that, a man suddenly walked out around 20 feet in front of her. He was smirking at her.

"So, you're the Claymore the village sent for."

Seren looked at him like he was an idiot. "I'm not a claymore." She pulled out her sword and gave it a look. "I guess you could call Tsukihime a claymore though. She's the right size." Yeah, Seren thinks of Tsukihime as a girl. No one bothers to correct her. _"Seriously, do I look anything like a sword? No, no I don't. This guy must need glasses or something." _"Get some glasses!"

The man twitched several times. "Are you messing with me? !"

"If you think I'm a sword, there is obviously something wrong with you. Either you have bad eyesight or you're just really stupid!"

"Why you little..." The man suddenly bulged and grew a few sizes.

"Huh, you're transforming. Is it a special ability or are you a monster? Weird." _"Never heard of a monster that could look like a human."_

"I'll kill you!" It rushed forward, pulling back a clawed hand to rip her in two. It missed the suddenly excited look on Seren's face.

"A fight? ! Awesome!" And that was the last thing it ever saw as it suddenly fell into two pieces. Seren looked at the bloody mess, rather disappointed. "That wasn't a very good fight. You're even weaker than most of the grunts." She briefly noticed a shadow over her. She looked up and saw another monster with wings flying over her. "Oh, it's one of those power in numbers things, huh? Man, those are never any fun. Oh well, I could use a warm-up." Then she jumped up to the monster, shocking it, and cut off its head. As she landed, three more monsters came out of hiding to try and attack her, but were decapitated by Seren spinning around in a move reminiscent of Assault Twister. Seren looked at the mess with an angry frown on her face. "You call that a fight! That was pathetic! You didn't even provide a decent workout! I'd have a better time training against rocks! At least I have to work to cut through them!" Out of the corner of her eye she saw some people coming out of the houses. "Oh, now you come out! What were you doing inside those houses this whole time? !"

"We had no choice. The youma ate anyone who ventured out on the streets," said an old man.

Seren looked at the bodies. Youma, huh? "These things? You must be kidding me! I've faced scarier failures! Anyone could take these down easy! Why didn't you people kill them yourself? !"

"B-but nobody but a Claymore is strong enough to kill a youma!"

"Again with the sword? ! What is with you people and thinking swords are so important? ! I like swords, but even I know how to use other weapons!" It was true. Seren could use staves, machine guns, and tanto. She was currently working on nunchuks. "You people are even more pathetic than these things!" In Seren's mind, that meant there was only one thing to do. "I'm whipping you people into shape! Maybe then you'll be able to take care of yourselves!"

"But don't you just take your payment and leave?"

"Payment? What the * beep * are you talking about? ! I don't care about money! You can keep your fucking money! I'm not leaving 'till I say I'm leaving!"

Poor village. They were going to quickly wish the youma were still there. And the Claymore Organization was going to be pulling their hair out when they found out about the Claymore look-a-like.


	8. Chapter 8

I am so embarrassed. I wrote that Azul was around 7 feet tall, but I recently read that he's actually 9' 5". In my defense, I don't see how it is possible for anyone to get that big even with genetic experimentation. Well, I went back and fixed it. It probably won't be that big a deal, but if you're a stickler for things like that, you're free to read that chapter again. Now, here's chapter 8. They're gonna be competing in the Coliseum, and they'll run into the first of the council of villains. And Sora will run into Cloud. That'll be interesting. Once again, I don't own any of these things.

**-start chapter-**

Sora had decided that he liked training to use Cure. It meant he could work out his aggression by hitting Donald over the head. The reason? You can't use a healing spell if you don't have an injury to heal. Donald had decided that Sora was suitably proficient in the spell by the fifth bonk on the head. Now, Sora was back to trying to get the anthros to let him drive the ship.

"Let me drive!"

"No!" shouted Donald. Goofy was being mature and ignoring them while driving the ship.

"Why not?"

"You don't know how to drive it!"

"Of course not! You guys won't let me drive! You won't even tell me how to drive it!"

"That's because you sent the ship crashing into that jungle world!"

"You were gonna skip it, and Riku and Kairi might've been there!"

Goofy sighed. Was this going to be a normal occurrence? He didn't really understand why Sora couldn't drive the ship. He was going to need to learn how to eventually. Goofy blinked as a world started to come into view. "Hey, guys..."

"Are we back in Traverse Town?" asked Donald.

Sora frowned. "But I didn't get to drive!"

"Well, it's not really Traverse Town." Goofy pointed at the world. It was sandy with a Roman-style building on the top. "I guess it's a world that's between Traverse Town and that jungle place."

"Well, are we touching down or not?" asked Sora, giving Donald a very pointed look.

Donald sighed, knowing that if he said 'no,' Sora would probably do something drastic again, and they might not be as lucky this time. "Fine, let's just go and see if there's anything useful." Sora grinned.

A few moments later, the three travelers walked into a large courtyard with two huge statues that looked like Roman soldiers. There wasn't really anything of note there, but they looked around for a moment. Donald found a chest of puppies and said a bad word, which amused Sora. After putting the puppies in the ship with the rest, they went through the small door between the two statues.

Inside was what appeared to be a fat cross between a goat and a man. Sora had started getting used to this, and cleared his throat. "Excuse me."

"Good timing. Give me a hand, will ya?" The goat guy hadn't even turned around. "Move that pedestal over there for me." He pointed at a large block. "I gotta spruce this place up for the games."

Sora looked at the block and poked it. The thing was solid stone, and probably weighed several hundred pounds. Now, Sora was much stronger than most people his size, but he didn't have any illusions about his strength. He knew he had his limits. Still, Sora figured he'd give it a try. Sora braced against the block and tried to push it a bit. Nope, nothing, and he tried for about a minute too. He straightened back up. "I can't push it. Maybe Azul, Zoro, or Seren could, but not me."

"What? ! Since when have you been such a little-" The goat guy turned and actually saw who he was talking to. "...Oh, wrong guy." Sora twitched as Donald snickered. The goat man crossed his arms. "What're you doing here? This here's the world famous Coliseum. Heroes only!" He gave them a look. "And I got my hands full preparing for the games. So, run along pipsqueaks." He made a shooing motion. When they didn't leave, he muttered something under his breath. "Look, it's like this. Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum," explained the goat.

Donald crossed his arms. "You got heroes standing in front of you!"

Goofy nodded and pointed at Sora. "Yup, he's a real hero, chosen by the Keyblade."

"Have you seen Riku and Kairi?" Of course Sora didn't care.

The goat guy snorted. "Hero? That Runt?" Then he openly laughed.

"Have you seen them? Riku's a guy a bit taller than me with silver hair. Kairi is a girl a little shorter than me with red hair."

Donald rolled his eyes. "Don't you care that he's basically saying that there's no way you can be a hero?"

Sora shook his head. "I have other things to deal with right now. Besides…" Sora clenched his fists and looked down. "Anyone who tries to be a hero becomes a monster or dies before reaching that point."

"Ya see? Kid's got the wrong mindset!" Looks like the goat guy was listening. "Besides, if you can't even move this..." He went over to the pedestal and started trying to push it. "You can't…call yourself...a hero!" He was making no progress at all. The three travelers gave him unimpressed looks as he gave up, panting. "Okay…so it takes more than brawn. Show me what you got."

"Now?"

"The tournament doesn't start for another hour. I can set something up. Just wait here." The goat man trotted through the opposite doorway.

"That guy is odd," said Sora. "Why's he testing me? I told him I'm not interested in being a hero."

Goofy put his hand under his chin in a thinking position. "I think that he wants ta change your view."

Donald rolled his eyes. "Who cares? Let's just prove him wrong." Sora sighed. He was sure Donald would point out that they'd had to go to the last world only because Sora had been too stubborn to take no for an answer. Now, it was their turn. Sora waited patiently until the goat guy came back in.

"Right, I set up the training course. Take 'em all out." Sora shrugged and walked out through the door. It led to an arena surrounded by stone seats. Set up around the arena were barrels, some on the ground, some on some blocks, and some on a moving platform. The goat guy came out behind him with Donald and Goofy. "I'll give ya minute."

Sora took out his daggers and gave them a twirl. _"This is nowhere near as bad as Seren's training."_ He then ran forward and started bashing the barrels, sending some crashing into other barrels and breaking those barrels. All in all, it didn't take him a minute to get rid of the barrels.

The goat raised an eyebrow. "Okay, not bad, but let's see if you can do the advanced course! Just hafta set it up..." Sora sat down against a wall while he watched the goat start setting up the barrels in places that would be harder to reach and in smaller groups.

"Hey, Sora?" Sora looked over at Goofy. "How come ya said all those things about heroes?"

Sora looked down. "Because it's true. Nothing good ever happens to those who dream of being heroes. All they experience is misfortune."

"Bad stuff is happening to you now," pointed out Goofy.

"That's just bad luck. Besides, I'm just trying to find Riku and Kairi."

"You helped Tarzan out when Clayton and the Heartless tried to hurt the gorillas," Goofy pointed out.

"..." Sora couldn't really come up with a good response to that one.

"Okay, course's all set up!" Sora looked up and blinked. He hadn't realized the goat had finished setting the barrels up. "This time, I'm giving you 30 seconds. Think you can handle it?"

"It's still not as bad as Seren's training." With that comment, Sora jumped onto the block and kicked the barrels into another group of barrels before jumping down and landing forcefully on another group of barrels. This sequence of events took around 5 seconds. The rest of the barrels were taken out in 15 seconds, and it only took that long because Sora had to run to a couple of groups. The goat took a look at Sora's handiwork.

"...Okay, you ain't bad kid." Sora smirked.

"Does that mean we can compete in your tournament?" asked Goofy.

The goat crossed his arm and shook his head. "Afraid not."

"Why not?" squawked Donald.

"Two words: You guys ain't heroes!" Sora sweatdropped.

"_That's four words..."_ Goofy also seemed confused by this as he was counting the words Phil had just said on his fingers.

"Wanna become a real hero? Start by mastering this spell!" He threw a scroll at Sora, which was easily caught. Sora's eyebrow twitched.

"_Didn't he get that I don't want to be a hero?" _ Sora took a look at the scroll. _"How to Master Thunder. Well, I have been wanting to learn this spell."_

"Now get out of here! I got 15 minutes to clean up before the games start!" The travelers obeyed and left the arena.

"Man, the nerve of that guy!" griped Donald. "I can't believe you just stood there and took it!"

"Like I said, I'm not interested in being a hero," said Sora. He was busy reading the scroll he'd gotten from the goat. "I don't know why he even wanted me to do that training of his."

"Hey Sora, did you ever know anyone who wanted to be a hero?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah."

"What happened?" Sora closed his eyes. It had been so long ago that he sometimes had trouble remembering. But whenever heroes were brought up…Sora's eyes opened with a look in them that was angry, sad, and lost.

"They…were monsters." He quickly went back to reading the scroll. Donald raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Sora gave Donald a look, like he was about to try to kill the duck and was trying to decide what method to use.

"You wouldn't understand. Besides, I thought you were upset about that goat guy?"

"Rather a stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?" The three spun around and saw a creepy looking guy. His skin was gray, his teeth were jagged, he had a black and gray tunic with a skull pin, and instead of hair, he had blue flames on his head. If that wasn't enough to worry them, he'd managed to sneak up on them, and that made Sora very cautious.

"Who are you?"

The man waved his hands in front of him. "Whoa, hold on there, chocobo boy." Sora twitched.

"_My hair does not look like a chocobo! Yeah, it's spiky, but it's brown, not yellow!"_

"Let me guess." The man took up a thinking position for a moment before holding up a finger in an 'I got it gesture.' "You want to enter the games, right?" He sidled behind Sora and put an arm around the boy's shoulders. The Tsviet just gave him a withering look. "Well, then, hey, get a load of this." He held up a hand, and a piece of paper appeared in it with a flash of light. Written on the paper were the words 'Tournament Pass.' Sora narrowed his eyes, now very suspicious.

"You're giving us a pass? Just like that?" They didn't know this guy. They'd just arrived in this world. Why would he give them a pass?

The man just shrugged. "I know a winner when I see one." He slipped the pass into one of Sora's many pockets. "Now, go get 'em. I'm pulling for ya little birdy." Sora twitched violently at this nickname, but the man left before he could protest to it. Sora pulled out the pass.

"Well, let's go show that goat the pass!" said Donald.

"I don't like this," muttered Sora.

"Don't you wanna prove that guy wrong?" asked Donald. Sora shrugged.

"I couldn't care less about being a hero," repeated Sora. He was getting tired of saying this. "I guess I could try out this new spell if we entered though." He knew Donald would never let him hear the end of it if he decided to not use the pass.

"Who do you think we'll have to fight?" asked Goofy.

"We'll find out in a few minutes," said Sora. They went back in the lobby of the Coliseum and Sora showed the goat the pass the creepy man had given them. "Here."

The goat gave the pass a suspicious look. "Where'd you get this?"

"Does it matter?"

The goat shrugged. "Probably not. Guess you're in. We start with the preliminaries! You ready?" The three nodded. "Some real weirdoes signed up for the games. Better watch yourself."

It turned out they were up first. They were rather surprised by their opponents. Sora twitched slightly. "Guys?"

"Yeah?" said Donald.

Sora pointed at the 4 Soldiers and 3 Heartless that looked like Red Nocturnes, but with blue coloring. "Why are the Heartless competing? !" They weren't even attacking anyone when they weren't in a match. It was very odd.

Goofy scratched his head. "Maybe they have to fight by the rules here?" The other two gave him incredulous looks. That just sounded silly. The Heartless were tired of waiting for the travelers to make a move and attacked. Sora sidestepped a swipe and beheaded the attacking Soldier. He looked at the blue heartless as Goofy sent another Soldier to the ground with a bash to the head.

"_Blue Rhapsody. Weak against Fire." _ One of them cast a Blizzard, but the spell was intercepted by a Fire from Donald. Sora cast another Fire, which hit the Blue Rhapsody and destroyed it. Then he spun and around and slashed the Soldier trying to sneak up on him. Meanwhile, Donald quickly cast another two Fire spells on the remaining two Blue Rhapsodies and Goof rammed the other Soldier a few times before spinning and bashing it in the head with the side of his shield. With all the Heartless gone, they walked out of the arena to where the goat was watching them. He nodded approvingly.

"You're no heroes yet, but you ain't doing bad." He grinned and jerked his thumb towards himself. "Lucky you came to me for coaching." Sora was about to make a comment about this, but a man walked by them just then. This man had blond spiky hair, blue, glowing eyes, a red cape, blue pants, a blue shirt, brown boots, some straps over his body, several belts, a metal shoulder guard on his left shoulder, a clawed glove on his left hand, and a huge sword with bandages wrapped around it in his right hand. As he passed by, he and Sora both looked at each other. The same thought went through both their minds.

"_He has mako eyes."_ And then the man was gone, walking into the arena. The goat crossed his arms while watching the blond.

"Something tells me he'll be a tough one to beat. Who knows? Maybe you'll end up facing him." Sora continued to stare at the man as he easily wiped out his opponents. That sword was wrapped in bandages, but he recognized it, and that man looked very familiar, but Sora couldn't remember where he'd seen the older man before. He didn't have much time to ponder this because they had to fight another group of Heartless as soon as the blond had destroyed the Heartless he was facing.

Standing (or floating in some cases) in front of them were 10 Soldiers and 3 Blue Rhapsodies.

"Hey Donald, think you can take care of the Blue Rhapsodies for us?" asked Sora.

"No problem. Fire!" The fireball hit one of the Blue Rhapsodies, vaporizing it. The other Heartless immediately mobilized. Sora brought the Keyblade down on a Soldier, splitting it in two, and spun on the ball of his foot to slice the head off the one behind it. Goofy punched another in the face with his shield and then brought the shield down on the Soldier's head. Donald intercepted a Blizzard spell and vaporized another Blue Rhapsody. Sora took out another two Soldiers while Goofy started spinning around, using the sharp edges of his shield to slice the remaining Soldiers. Sora decided to try out his new spell.

"Thunder!" A small bolt hit one of the Soldiers, causing it twitch uncontrollably. _"Needs a bit more work."_ Sora impaled the struck Soldier through the chest, destroying it. Goofy stopped spinning and struck the closest Soldier, sending it flying and destroying it. Donald cast another Fire on the remaining Blue Rhapsody and cast a Thunder that struck the remaining Soldiers and vaporized them.

"That's how you cast a Thunder," said Donald with a smirk.

"I guess I'll work on it between matches," said Sora. He walked over to the dugout and started reading the scroll again. The next round came very quickly though. This time it was five Red Nocturnes and five Blue Rhapsodies. Sora ran up to a Red Nocturne and split it in two. Goofy was right behind him and bashed a Blue Rhapsody to the ground. Donald quickly cast a Blizzard on a Red Nocturne and a Fire on a Blue Rhapsody. The remaining Heartless started gathering power for a spell. Sora quickly did a spin, hitting most of the remaining Heartless, but missed a couple of Blue Rhapsodies that finished casting their spell and fired the icicles at Sora and Goofy. Sora blocked them with the Keyblade. Goofy used his shield. Donald hit the two Blue Rhapsodies with a couple of Fires. Sora impaled a Red Nocturne. Goofy swung his shield-covered fist into the last Blue Nocturne, which was enough to destroy it. Donald cast Blizzard on a Red Nocturne getting ready to cast a spell. The last Red Nocturne cast a Fire, but Sora hit the spell with a Blizzard and then sent a Blizzard at the Heartless, destroying it. They walked out of the arena and were greeted by Phil again.

"Say, you're better than I thought kid!" Phil crossed his arms and looked up with a thoughtful look on his face. "Wish he was here to see this."

Goofy cocked his head. "Who?"

"Hercules." Phil looked rather proud. "He's a hero if ever there was one." He sighed. "Too bad he's off visiting his father."

"Maybe we can meet him when he gets back!" said Goofy.

"We probably won't be able to stay that long," said Donald. Sora was too busy looking at the Thunder scroll to talk.

The next round of the tournament came around before they knew it. This time there were 2 Shadows, 2 Soldiers, 3 Red Nocturnes, and 3 Blue Rhapsodies. Sora tried Thunder again. This time, the bolt was stronger, but it was still only one. At least it paralyzed the Soldier it hit long enough for Sora to behead it. Donald cast a Fire on a Blue Rhapsody and Goofy slammed his shield into one of the Shadows. Sora blocked a swipe from the other Soldier, used his foot to sweep its legs out, and plunged the Keyblade into its chest. Goofy did his spinning move again, slamming into all the remaining Heartless. Donald cast another Fire on a Blue Rhapsody while Sora blocked some Fire spells and a Blizzard spell for him. Then Sora cast Fire on the last Blue Rhapsody, and jumped back to avoid a lunge from the last Shadow before it was destroyed by a strong hit to the head by Goofy's shield. This left the three Red Nocturnes, which were quickly destroyed by several Blizzards from Donald and Sora.

The next match was against 10 Blue Rhapsodies. It was a massacre. Goofy didn't even get a chance to do anything. Sora and Donald just used a lot of Fires that destroyed the Blue Rhapsodies and cancelled out the few Blizzard spells the Heartless managed to cast. Watching this one-sided fight were the flame-haired man from earlier and the blond man with the cape.

"That little punk..." The flame-haired man gestured towards Sora. "...is your next opponent, okay? Now, don't blow it. Just take him out."

The blond man raised an eyebrow. "The great god of the Underworld is afraid of a kid?" Given there was something about the kid that seemed familiar, and he had mako eyes, but still... "Sorry, but my contract says-"

"I know!" The flame-haired man's skin took on a red tinge and his 'hair' turned orange and turned into a blaze. "You think I don't know? ! I wrote the contract!" His appearance returned to normal as he took a few deep breaths and calmed down. "I know it says you're only required to kill Hercules in this tournament, but you've gotta fight this kid to get to him. Come on. It's like that old goat says. 'Rule #11: It's all just a game, so let loose and have fun with it!' I mean, a casualty or two along the way is no big deal, right?" The blond just gave him a look before walking away. The flame-haired man rolled his eyes. "Geez. Stiffer than the stiffs back home." He smirked. "Still suckers like him are hard to come by." Behind him, something gave an ominous growl.

The group was up for the next round. This one had a Large Body, 4 Red Nocturnes, and 4 Blue Rhapsodies. Sora held the Keyblade up. "Thunder!" Several bolts of lightning came down and hit the Heartless. Sora grinned. "Finally!"

"Thunder! Don't get cocky!" shouted Donald. Goofy hit one of the Red Nocturnes into the ground, effectively destroying it. Sora jumped, destroying a Blue Rhapsody at the apex of his jump, landed behind the Large Body, and slashed it across the back, slashing it open and causing it to disperse. Donald cast a Fire on another Blue Rhapsody, killing it. Goofy threw his shield at a Red Nocturne, cutting it in half while Sora cut another in two vertically with a jumping slash. This gave the remaining two Blue Rhapsodies and Red Nocturne time to cast spells. Goofy blocked a Blizzard with shield. Sora dodged the other Blizzard. Donald wasn't fast enough and got hit by the Fire.

"You okay?" shouted Sora. Donald coughed up a bit of smoke and nodded before using Blizzard on the remaining Red Nocturne. Sora cast a Fire on one of the Blue Rhapsodies, and Goofy bashed the last Blue Rhapsody into the ground where it dispersed into black smoke. As they walked out of the arena, the goat was there to meet them.

"Nice job so far, but that guy with the huge sword is your next opponent. Registration says his name is Cloud."

"That name sounds familiar," muttered Sora.

"Ya think he's from your world?" asked Goofy. Sora shook his head.

"No, he's definitely not from Destiny Islands. Maybe he's from Gaia."

Donald raised an eyebrow. "Gaia?"

"It's where I lived before Destiny Islands."

"So, you're not actually from Destiny Islands?" asked Goofy.

"No. To tell the truth, the only person we're looking for who was actually born there is Riku. Kairi's from another world too."

"Then how did you get there?" asked Donald. He looked a little worried. Sora couldn't blame him. He was pretty sure he was about to confirm Donald's fears.

"Gaia was destroyed. When it was destroyed, Shadow Heartless appeared. I didn't think they were anything important. They just showed up. I didn't even know they were Heartless until I ended up Traverse Town. I hadn't seen them for seven years when they showed up on the Islands..."

Donald sighed. "That means the Heartless have been active for a while..."

"Gawrsh, were there any other survivors from your world?" Sora nodded.

"Yeah, my family, and I'm pretty sure Yuffie and Cid are from Gaia too. And then there's Cloud...I wish I could remember why he's so familiar..."

"Hey, enough chit chat, you guys are up next," said the goat suddenly. Actually, it was probably a good thing. The direction the conversation was taking was making Sora nervous. He quickly dashed into the arena where Cloud was waiting. The two chocobo-haired males eyed each other while Donald and Goofy came in as well.

"Were you in SOLDIER?" asked Sora.

"First Class," replied Cloud. Sora gave him a weird look.

"I don't remember any First Classes that look like you..." _"Then again, he might've been promoted to First Class while I was in DEEPGROUND. No one ever told us any news about the SOLDIER units."_

"I'll prove it to you!" And then Cloud rushed in, much faster than a normal human should be able to. Sora had been expecting this. After all, Cloud did have mako enhancements. Sora brought up his daggers and blocked the sword with a grunt of effort. Cloud was strong! Said blond frowned. "You're using a couple of daggers?"

"And you're using the Buster Sword!" Sora jumped back as Donald cast Fire. Cloud used his sword like a shield while Goofy came in to try and ram Cloud with his shield. Too bad Cloud's reflexes were too good for that. He brought his blade around, hitting Goofy with the side and sending him flying several feet until the anthro hit the ground with a sickening crack. Donald's eyes widened.

"Goofy!"

"He's not dead!" shouted Sora while blocking a horizontal slash from Cloud. This guy was trying to kill him! "He's just unconscious!"

Donald raised his staff. "Cu-" Cloud suddenly dashed in front of Donald and kicked him in the solar plexus. Anyone with knowledge of fighting and/or the human body knows that this is a good way to knock the breath out of someone and maybe even knock them out. In fact, hitting there with enough force can kill a person. The same held true for Donald. He lost all breath and collapsed trying to get his breath back. Cloud then spun around as Sora came down from a jump, plunging his daggers down, only for Cloud to block with his sword. Cloud then swung his blade back, sending Sora flying. Sora grit his teeth as he landed.

"_Okay, I have to go all out!"_ Sora ran up to Cloud, much faster this time around, and managed to get a cut in Cloud's shirt before Cloud made a swipe with his sword that forced Sora to jump back. Then Cloud ran forward, jumped, and buried his sword into the ground where Sora had just been standing. Sora took a glance at his two companions. Goofy was still unconscious. Donald couldn't seem to recover from Cloud's blow. Sora couldn't do anything about either because there wasn't enough time between attacks to cast a Cure or use an item. As he finished that line of thought, Cloud came in with several consecutive slashes, each one jarring Sora's arms and shoulders as they were blocked. _"This guy is strong. I better use it."_ Energy started smoking around Sora. Cloud's eyes widened and jumped back, not knowing what sort of limit break was about to be used. The smoke almost completely disappeared, taking on a red hue as Sora's clothes and pupils turned red and fleur-de-lis appeared on Sora's jacket and sides of Sora's pants.

"_What kind of limit is that?" _ wondered Cloud. His question was answered when Sora suddenly appeared in front of the blond. It seems Sora was now much faster. Sora made to stab Cloud, but was blocked by the Buster Sword. Cloud briefly noted that Sora also seemed much stronger before swinging his blade to knock the boy back. Electricity crackled over Cloud's body and he floated off the ground as the wing growing out of his left shoulder spread out behind him. Sora's eyes widened.

"_A wing? ! Is he a Genesis copy or something? !" _ Then Cloud literally flew towards Sora, and the young boy had to block several strikes from the sword before Cloud hit the ground, causing a shock wave of energy that caught Sora off guard and knocked him to the ground. Cloud took the advantage and lifted his blade to stab Sora. Sora looked up and saw what was happening. He remembered the last time he'd been in a position like this, eight years ago. Then Sora's eyes widened as he realized just why Cloud looked so familiar. "You're from Nibelheim!"

Cloud froze up. "Wh-What?"

Sora nodded and pointed at him. "Yeah, I remember now! You're the guy that stabbed Sephiroth!"

Cloud's eyes widened. "How-" A giant three-headed dog appeared behind him. Sora's eyes widened.

"Behind you!" Cloud turned, but he wasn't fast enough, and was knocked to the ground and pinned to by the giant dog's foot. One of the dog's heads grabbed the sword and threw it to the side. Sora took a quick glance at Cloud and noted that the Blond had been knocked out. Off to the side, an amused flame-haired man observed all this with a smirk on his face.

"Oh right, there was one other rule I forgot: Accidents happen." He faded into the shadows with a sinister chuckle. Back in the arena one of the heads came down on Sora. Sora threw himself back hopefully enough to avoid a mauling, but he wouldn't need to worry about it. An orange-haired man suddenly ran between the two and stopped the jaws with his bare hands.

"Herc!" shouted the goat. Sora blinked.

"Hercules?"

Hercules looked over his shoulder at the goat. "Phil! Get them out of here!" Phil, who was apparently the goat man, started gesturing towards the exit. Sora, who was thankful that he was still in his Valor form, ran over and grabbed the two anthros. He paused and looked over at the discarded Buster Sword before putting Goofy over his shoulder, running over to the sword, grabbing it, and running to the exit. Once inside the small lobby, Sora put Donald, Goofy, and the Buster Sword against the wall across from the podium. He finally turned back to normal at that moment and pulled out a hi-potion which he poured into Donald's beak. The duck coughed as he finally seemed to recover from Cloud's strike. Sora turned towards Goofy, who was bleeding from the head.

"Cure." The magic went into the wound and knitted it up as Phil came in running and panting.

"That was close! That was Cerberus, guardian of the underworld!" He wiped his forehead with his arm. "Herc should be able to handle him." A loud roar came from the arena. "But then again, maybe not...This doesn't look good..."

Donald glanced at the sword leaning against the wall. "What'd you grab that for?"

Sora looked at the sword. "It's their sword..."

"Huh?"

"I need to know where he got this sword!" Sora started shaking Goofy. "Wake up! C'mon! We need to go back in there!" Donald's eyes bugged out.

"What? !"

"You wanna take on Cerberus? !" shouted Phil. "Are you nuts? ! Even Herc has trouble with him!"

"I need to talk to Cloud. It's really important." Sora continued to shake Goofy until the anthro groaned and rubbed his head with a wince.

"What happened?"

"You got hit by a First Class SOLDIER, or at least someone at the level of one," explained Sora.

Goofy cocked his head. "SOLDIER?"

"They're part of the military division of Shinra, from Gaia," explained Sora. "I'm gonna go keep Cerberus from killing him. You wanna help?"

"Sure!"

"What? ! He tried to kill us!" shouted Donald. Sora shook his head.

"No, if he'd wanted you dead, he'd have done it with no problem." Donald frowned and pointed at Sora.

"What about you?" Sora nervously rubbed the back of his head.

"He might've been trying to kill me. I'm around the level of a lower-ranking First Class SOLDIER. He'd have more trouble with me."

"And you still want to save him?" asked Donald in disbelief.

"Normally, no, but I have some questions for him." With that, he ran back into the arena. Not having much of a choice, the two anthros followed him into the arena. Phil darted out to see how it was going. Hercules had Cloud slung over a shoulder, and seemed to be doing well against Cerberus, who was growling ferociously. When Sora's group ran up with their weapons drawn, Hercules retreated. Phil was close behind him, but had one last thing to say before he left.

"Kid, I got two words of advice for ya: Attack!" And then he was out of there.

Sora looked up at Cerberus. _"Its aura's been pretty heavily depleted. I guess we have Hercules to thank for that." _ Then the giant dog tried to take a bite out of them, but they jumped back enough to avoid it. Sora twirled his daggers, ran in, jumped at the left head, and started slashing it as quickly as he could. Then the head tried to bite him, but Sora pushed himself away by kicking off its chin. Goofy tried to copy this by jumping up and hitting the right head in the chin with his shield. Cerberus growled and each head suddenly shot a fireball out of its mouth. Each fireball followed one of the travelers. Sora ran a few feet forward, then spun, and slashed his daggers in an 'X' formation across the fireball following him around. This effectively dispersed the fireball. Goofy blocked it with a shield, and Donald managed to get rid of it with a couple of Blizzard spells. Cerberus growled and dashed towards the closest thing, which happened to be Goofy, and tried to take a bit out of him with all three heads. Goofy actually managed to keep the right and middle head from getting too close. The left one though...

*** Crunch! ***

Goofy took a look at his shield, which now had a chunk missing from it. The left head spat out a piece of metal. Goofy only had one thing to say.

"Uh oh."

Fortunately, Cerberus was hit by a couple of Thunder Spells, courtesy of Donald, and several slashes to its right side, courtesy of Sora. This distracted it enough for Goofy to move back and take in the damage. The upper right part of the shield was missing in a mess of jagged edges and Cerberus saliva. This was throwing off the balance that he usually had with a symmetric weapon, but he could probably still use it. He just wouldn't be throwing it again. The damage assessed, Goofy decided to join back in the fight. That was when a shadowy mass started leaking out of the mouths. Then they vomited the shadowy mass onto the ground. The mass instantly started following the three travelers. They didn't know what it was, but it couldn't be good so they ran. Sora grit his teeth for a second before a crazy idea came to him.

"I got an idea!" And then he jumped onto Cerberus's back. He ran up to the base of the left head and started slashing away. Cerberus of course didn't like this, but only the middle head could get to him in this position, and Sora was able to easily dodge its attacks. Then a pain suddenly lanced up his right leg. Sora glanced down and saw that shadowy tendrils were climbing up his leg. With one last block to the teeth, Sora jumped down and off Cerberus. The shadows separated easily from his leg, but it was still smoking.

"Are you crazy? !" shouted Donald.

"I thought that the shadows wouldn't follow me up there!" shouted Sora. Donald rolled his eyes. "Cure!" Sora quickly healed his leg. _"Well, at least its aura has depleted a lot." _ Goofy suddenly rocketed up from the ground and into the right head. Sora was pretty sure he saw some teeth get knocked loose. _"Shouldn't take much more to kill it, if you can kill the guardian of the Underworld." _ Sora jumped up and slashed his daggers in an 'X' formation across the middle head's face. It roared in pain, and the other two heads tried to bite Sora, but he put a foot on each nose and jumped up. "Thunder!" Lightning hit the three heads. Cerberus shook its heads to try and clear them, only to have Sora come down on the middle one with a drop heel kick. This was too much for the giant dog. It fell to the ground with a loud thud and didn't move. Sora kicked the head again for good measure. _"Well, its aura is gone."_ "I think that did it."

"Show off," muttered Donald.

"Wow, what a mess!" said Goofy, looking around the arena. Several of the seats had been destroyed, and there was a large crater in one spot. "You think they'll be mad?"

"A giant three-headed dog with supernatural powers just attacked the place. I think they'll understand," said Sora, looking around. "Sheesh, it did almost as much damage as Azul in his Arch form." This got him an odd look from the two anthros, but they decided not to ask since Sora probably wouldn't explain.

A few moments later found them standing in the lobby with Hercules and Phil. Phil was reading off a scroll. "Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee all rights and privileges to participate in the games. Further-" Donald had just realized what Phil said exactly.

"Hey! What do ya mean 'junior heroes'?"

Phil rolled his eyes. "You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero."

"So, what does it take?" asked Goofy. Hercules chuckled with a smile on his face.

"Well, that's just something you'll have to find out for yourselves, just like I did."

"Maybe we can participate in the games some more," said Sora.

"There ain't gonna be any games for a while. Gotta clean up the mess from the last battle first," said Phil.

Sora shrugged. "Well, we'll come back when you've cleaned up. It was fun fighting in your tournament." That said, the travelers left that lobby. Phil rubbed his chin absentmindedly.

"I still can't believe that squirt actually beat Cerberus."

Hercules bent down so he could whisper to Phil. "Just between us, I'd already worn down Cerberus by the time the little guy jumped in."

Phil grinned and made a zipping motion with his fingers. "My lips sealed."

Outside with our heroes, they were having a different discussion.

"So, what do you think it takes to be a true hero?" asked Goofy.

"I dunno," said Sora. He looked up at the sky with a thoughtful look on his face. "If a couple of First Class SOLDIERS couldn't figure it out, I kind of doubt that we have any chance of figuring it out."

"Again with the SOLDIER thing?" asked Donald.

"They're a big deal where I come from," explained Sora.

"Hey, how come you were moving so fast when you were fighting Cloud?" asked the duck.

"You were still able to watch?" Donald nodded. "Huh...Well, I can actually move pretty fast. I just don't move that fast so you guys can keep up with me."

"How come?" asked Goofy.

Sora rubbed the back of his head in an embarrassed manner. "Well, it's sort of embarrassing. My family was doing a team sparring exercise. I got teamed up with Azul. He doesn't move as fast as the rest of us. I ran in front of him, but he didn't see me and kicked me. It broke four of my ribs and caused some internal bleeding. I wasn't allowed out of bed for two weeks. Then Seren made me make up for the training I missed in the space of two days. Since then, I try to move at the same speed as the people I'm fighting with so I don't get hit with their attacks."

"He just kicked you, and that broke your ribs and caused internal bleeding?" asked Donald.

"Yeah, Azul is capable of lifting a tank with one hand. You do not want to get hit by him," said Sora.

"But it only took you a couple of weeks to recover?"

"Mako exposure increases a person's natural healing rate, plus Chris is in charge of medicine and she is really good at recovery spells." Goofy suddenly hit his fist into the palm of his hand.

"Hey! You know, you say you don't wanna be a hero, but you didn't complain when Phil made ya a junior hero or try to stop him. I bet that you still wanna be a hero deep down." This was an odd thing to say just out of the blue like that, but oddly insightful. Donald blinked. Sora blushed slightly.

"Wh-what? ! Don't be ridiculous! I don't wanna get killed or turn into a monster, and that's what happens to anyone who tries to be a hero!"

"That could happen to anyway with the Heartless around," pointed out Donald.

Sora looked down as several memories flashed through his mind. "Yeah, but at least I'm doing what I want, not what people think I should do." Sora walked away from them, trying to put some distance between them. As Sora looked up, he saw Cloud sitting in front of the exit of the world. He seemed to be in thought. "Hey!" Cloud looked up. Sora took a look at him, trying to get another look at the wing from earlier, but the red cloak was hiding it. "Why do you have a wing? Are you a Genesis copy?" Cloud looked confused.

"Genesis copy?" Cloud honestly didn't seem to know what that meant. Along with the fact that he had blond spiky hair and looked nothing like any Genesis clone Sora had ever seen, Sora decided that Cloud was most likely not a copy. This still brought up the question of the wing though.

"Nevermind. But why do you have a wing?" Said wing suddenly unfurled from Cloud's cape. It looked more like a ragged bat wing than anything else. Cloud gave it a confused look.

"I'm not sure. It's just there. I think it's because of Sephiroth..." At this, Cloud's eyes widened suddenly. "How did you know about what happened?"

"Oh, I guess you don't recognize me either. I was at Nibelheim too." Cloud gave him a confused look.

"And I stabbed Sephiroth?" Now Sora was confused.

"Yeah...What I want to know is how you got that Sword."

"I got it when I reached First Class." Sora was getting worried. Yeah, the guy was good, but he had been a cadet in Nibelheim. He couldn't have become a SOLDIER and reached First Class in just a year. Something was off. Cloud suddenly gave him a weird look. "I don't remember ever seeing you in Nibelheim when I was growing up."

"Well, yeah, I didn't grow up there. I just came with the SOLDIERS."

"Why would SOLDIERS bring a little kid with them?" Sora sweatdropped.

"Zack explained it, remember?" Cloud cocked his head.

"Who's Zack?" Sora's eyes widened as realization hit him.

"_He has mako poisoning! Shit! I can't tell him anything about what happened or it'll mess up his memories! Great...I can't find out anything when he can't remember what I'm talking about." _"Nevermind. Just forget about it. Not like it matters..." Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Why were you trying to kill me?"

Cloud sighed. "I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help." Sora figured that Hades was the guy with the flaming head. "I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired." He stood up. "I fell into darkness, and couldn't find the light." Sora thought for a second, thinking of DEEPGROUND. Sora had only been there for a year, but he had almost lost his light. If it hadn't been for Kimihiro...

"You know, the darkness is pretty strong, and I can see why you would want to use it, but I like the light better." Cloud gave him an odd look.

"Light?" Sora nodded.

"Yeah, all you need is a little light, even in a sea of darkness. That guiding light...as long as you can see it, there's nothing to worry about because you'll always know your path, and you won't lose yourself to the darkness. You just need to find yours." Sora smiled. "I'm looking for mine too."

"For...Your light?" Sora nodded. Cloud looked thoughtful for a second before nodding. "Don't lose sight of it." He started to walk away towards the lobby. Sora turned to look at him.

"Hey!" Cloud stopped. "How 'bout a rematch sometime? Fair and square! No powers of darkness involved!" Cloud was silent for a moment.

"I think I'll pass." And then he continued walking away. Sora heard the sound of someone clearing their throat to his left and turned towards it. Donald and Goofy were standing there watching him. Donald had a smug look on his face, and Goofy looked happier than usual.

"Golly, that was some pep talk Sora," said Goofy.

"And you said you weren't hero material," said Donald. Sora blinked as the two anthros went ahead back to the gummi ship. The Keyblade Master looked up at the sky with a dreamy look in his eyes.

"A hero..." He shook his head and looked down. "No...I'm a Tsviet. From DEEPGROUND. I kill with neither discretion nor morals, even if I cling to my light. I can never be a hero. An over-sized key won't change that. " With that mood dampener, Sora followed his traveling companions out of the world to the gummi ship.

A certain firey-headed god of the Underworld looked at a Hercules action figure. "He's strong. He's kind. He's always there for you, and he's handsome to boot. He's perfect. Perfect." Then Hades's hair and skin turned red as he got angry and the action figure melted. "Perfectly infuriating! He makes me crazy!" He took a couple of deep breath to calm down and ran his hands over his 'hair.' "Wait a minute. What are you talking about? All the pieces are in place. Relax. Here's what you do. Let Hercules and the kid do whatever they do. In the next games, I'll take care of them both." He stopped his self monologue when he saw that Maleficent was watching him with an unreadable look on her face. He twitched slightly. "Who invited you to the party? Stay out of this." He pointed at himself. "This is my show."

"As you wish. Fight to your heart's content." And then she teleported away, back to Hollow Bastion. Hades rolled his eyes.

"Some people...Oh well, as long as I get rid of the hero, I could care less."

**-Line Break-**

There you have it. Can anyone guess why Sora is so dead set against being a hero? And can you guess the reasons? I certainly hope that you liked this chapter. It was boring doing all those fights. For the next tournament, I may not go into as much detail, except with boss opponents. There's not really a lot to talk about in this chapter. It's a lot shorter than my last one. Well, leave a review for me. I'll be waiting. But first, here's another omake concerning one of the other Tsviets.

**Omake: What about the Rest? Part V**

Seras Victoria stared. She felt she had the right to do that, even if she was a vampire. This was just scary. She and Alucard had been dispatched to a town that had been overrun by ghouls and, presumably, a vampire. Their orders were to destroy all the ghouls and the vampire. This would have been very simple, if not for the fact that they had already been destroyed by a scantily clad red-haired woman in the oddest outfit Seras had ever seen with a very strange looking double-bladed weapon. Said woman was covered in ghoul blood but was calmly star/moon gazing. Alucard seemed unusually interested.

"Well, you did quite a number on them."

The woman turned to face them with an odd smile. She had red glowing eyes. Seras tensed up. Such a trait usually meant that the individual was a vampire. "Hello. Are you vampires like that other man?"

"Hmph. You took care of him?"

Rosso sighed and shook her head while shrugging. "When he said he was a vampire, I thought I'd have a fun fight, but he was so pathetically weak. Oh well, at least I was able to bathe in the blood of these ones. They're not exactly human, but they'll do."

"Wait a minute! Are you saying you're not a vampire?" Sure some people could go toe-to-toe with the nocturnal monsters, but they were few in number, and this woman seemed terrifying enough to be a monster herself. She seemed amused by Seras's statement.

"A vampire? Me?" She laughed. "Is it because I have red eyes? Or because I enjoy the sight and feel of blood? Or maybe both? Little girl, shouldn't you be able to tell when you are a vampire yourself?" Seras started a bit at that. How could that woman tell? Alucard stepped forward with a grin. Then he took a sniff and frowned.

"Your blood is filthy." The woman shrugged.

"The result of two decades of experimentation. What? It puts you off?"

"Drinking your blood would be like drinking poison. What a shame. I was looking forward to drinking the blood of a worthy opponent." Seras wondered what could be in the woman's blood that her master wouldn't drink it. He'd drink almost everyone else's, except for children. He seemed disgusted by the idea of drinking a child's blood.

"Oh, so you want to fight?" The woman seemed excited by the idea. "Wonderful. It was far too easy to wipe out these pathetic bags of flesh and blood." She brought her odd weapon in front of her. "It is common courtesy to share your name before a fight to the death, is it not? That way you will know who killed you. I am Rosso. Rosso the Crimson."

"Well, that's fitting. You may call me Alucard." And then he shot at her with Jackal. Rosso hit the bullet out of the air with her blade and used her inhuman speed to get close enough to Alucard to cut him in half. Fortunately, Alucard was also very fast and was able to jump over it. Seras decided it was in her best interest to go take cover behind one of the nearby houses. This wasn't just a fight to the death. This was a fight between monsters.


	9. Chapter 9

Here we are in Chapter 9. Sora's back in Traverse Town, and he'll hopefully be getting some answers. I own nothing here! Except for the plot!

**-start chapter-**

"See? I'm doing just fine!" After seeing how depressed Sora was when they left the Coliseum, Donald finally consented and let him drive the gummi ship. He was surprised by how well Sora was doing, although Sora seemed to enjoy shooting the lasers a little too much.

"Where'd you learn to fly Sora?" asked Goofy.

"This is my first time, but I did a few simulations on Gaia, well, for airships anyway. The controls for these ships are pretty similar. Who designs them?" The two anthros shrugged. "I wonder if he's from Gaia…"

"Oh hey!" Goofy pointed toward a very familiar world coming up. "There's Traverse Town! Almost there!"

Donald's eyes widened when he saw something else. "Look out for that meteor!"

Too late. They crashed.

Meanwhile, Yuffie was loitering around the entrance to Traverse Town. She was bored. There was nothing for her to do, and nothing interesting had happened since Guard Armor was destroyed. "Something happen!" No sooner had she shouted this than the group of travelers that had left only a few days earlier walked in through the gate. This wouldn't have been noteworthy if it had not been for the fact they were covered in soot and smoking. Yuffie took one look and burst out laughing. "What happened to you guys? !"

"This genius flew into a meteor!" shouted Donald, pointing at Sora.

"I said I was sorry!"

"So, what are you guys doing back here?"

"We found some weird stuff that we wanna ask Leon about," explained Sora.

"Ah, he's probably training in the sewers in the alley."

As one, the three voiced their disbelief. "Sewers?" Yuffie nodded.

"Yeah, for some reason the Heartless don't go there. What's with the weird chain?"

"That's one of the things we're asking about."

"Hey, Yuffie, do you know anyone who wants a puppy?" asked Goofy.

"Puppy?"

"Oh, yeah…" Sora almost forgot about them. "We found a bunch of puppies while we were traveling around. We couldn't leave them in the worlds where we found them, so we brought them with us."

"Are they Dalmatians?" Sora gave her a disbelieving look.

"…How did you know that?"

"There are a couple of Dalmatians in a house in the second district who lost their puppies when their world was destroyed. Those puppies are probably some of theirs."

"But there's 24 of them…" said Donald. Yuffie grinned.

"Wow, you found a lot of them!" Sora twitched slightly.

"How many puppies do they have?"

"99"

"How'd they end up with that many? !" shouted Donald. Yuffie shrugged.

"I don't know. They're dogs! We can't really ask them. Why don't you take them back to their parents? I bet Leon would appreciate it."

"Leon?" Sora was confused. Why would Leon care?

"Yeah, Leon's actually a real softie when it comes to puppies. He just doesn't want people to know."

Sora grinned. "Like Angeal?"

"Angeal Hewley was a softie for puppies? !"

"Yeah, he used to sneak some into Shinra Tower so he could take care of them for a while. When he knew he couldn't keep them anymore, he always found good homes for them. Sometimes, I'd play with them."

Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "Angeal Hewley let you play with his puppies?"

"He'd let anyone play with them…except for scientists and most executives."

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Donald. He and Goofy had no idea what they were talking about.

"Angeal Hewley was a First Class SOLDIER," explained Yuffie. "He was one of the strongest SOLDIERS to ever be in the program." Sora snickered.

"It got him a fan club. It was funny seeing him trying to avoid the fan girls."

"Hey, what were you doing in Shinra Tower anyway?" asked Yuffie. "It doesn't seem like they'd let a kid go in and out of it."

"I lived there."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, my foster father lived there, so I lived there too." Yuffie propped her head on her fist in thought.

"The people that lived there were mostly Turks and SOLDIERS. Who was your dad? Maybe I've heard of him."

"…" Yuffie raised an eyebrow when Sora went silent. He'd been pretty talkative until then. Sora sighed and looked to the side for a second. "I'd rather not say…"

"You two have a falling out?"

"You could say that…"

"You don't like talking about it, do ya?" said Goofy. Sora had almost forgotten those two were there. He nodded in response to the knight's inquiry.

"Yeah, it brings up painful memories." At this point, Yuffie decided that it was becoming a little too awkward.

"Well, I'll just leave you guys to do whatever. See ya around!" And then Yuffie ran off to do something else, most likely involving the killing of Heartless.

"Well, we better go get some new weapons before we look for Leon," said Donald. Goofy took a look at Sora, who was still looking off to the side with a far off look in his eyes.

"Sora? Are you okay?" Sora blinked and looked at Goofy.

"Hm?"

"Ya seem sad." Sora gave the anthro a smile.

"It's nothing. Don't worry." That done, the three went to the item shop.

"Hi Uncle Donald!"

"Hi boys. Goofy here needs a new shield. Show 'em Goofy." Goofy pulled out his shield.

"Whoa!"

"What happened to that? !"

"A giant three-headed dog tried to eat him," said Sora.

"Cool!"

"Do you guys have any shields?" asked Goofy.

"Sure! One second." Huey dug around behind the counter and pulled out a shield. It was diamond shaped with a royal blue outline. There were four interlocked circles on the shield that were light blue. The top and bottom circles were yellow on the inside, and the right and left circle were a darker blue on the inside. The left and right circles also had metal studs in them. The top and bottom circles had yellow outside of the circles, making a couple of triangles on the top and bottom of the shield. There were also a couple of light blue handles that were sticking out of the top and bottom circles. "It's called the mythril shield."

"It looks okay. How much is it?"

"750 munny," said Dewey. Fortunately, defeating so many Heartless got them a lot of munny and they were able to easily able to buy it.

"Okay, now how 'bout something for me?" asked Donald. Louie held up a green staff with a thick blue stripe on the shaft and a blue star on the top.

"It's called the Shooting Star. Only 300 munny."

"Deal." Donald handed over the munny and he took the new staff. Since that was all they needed, they left the shop and went to the second district. They quickly ran into a Large Body, only it had some new Heartless with it. There was a Red Nocturne and a Blue Rhapsody, but there were two more Heartless they'd never seen before. They were the same size and shape as the spell-casting Heartless, but one was yellow and the other was green. Sora took a quick look at them.

"_Yellow Opera, absorbs Thunder spells. Green Requiem, absorbs all spells, casts Cure."_ "The green one absorbs spells!" Sora jumped up and split the Greed Requiem in two. Donald hit the Large Body with a Fire while Goofy bashed the Red Nocturne into the ground. Sora then shot a Fire at the Blue Rhapsody while Goofy threw his shield at the Yellow Opera hard enough to go through it. Donald cast another Fire on the Large Body. The large Heartless started glowing, slapped its body a couple of times, they did a belly slide towards the duck magician. Donald jumped out of the way, and Sora threw the Keyblade at the Large Body's back. It went straight through, and the Heartless quickly dissipated.

After they took care of the other Heartless they ran into, they found a door with a picture of a Dalmatian on it. This seemed to be the most likely place to find a Dalmatian, so they went in. Inside were two depressed looking Dalmatian dogs.

"I guess this is it," muttered Donald.

"What 'cha lookin' at Sora?" asked Goofy. Sora was staring at a wall with a surprised look on his face. At Goofy's question, he smirked.

"Oh…Nothing. Let's get those puppies that we found locked in tiny cramped treasure chests."

The two anthros gave him an odd look at his behavior, but decided to shrug it off. Sora seemed to behave rather strangely at times for reasons beyond their comprehension. Fortunately, one of those glowing circles was in the house so it was easy to get the 24 puppies into the house. The puppies saw their parents, yipped happily, and ran towards the dogs. The dogs brightened and ran forward to meet the puppies. 25 dogs happily nuzzled each other. 1 of the puppies was more interested in sniffing something near the wall. Goofy sniffled and wiped a tear away from his eye.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Sora nodded. One of the dogs suddenly separated from the huge mass of dogs and stuck his head under the sofa. He pulled out a pink box, trotted over to Sora, and dropped it at his feet. Sora blinked and pointed at himself.

"For me?" The dog nodded. Sora opened the box. "Uh, I think they're gummi blocks." He pulled out the two blocks. Donald nodded.

"Yep, they're gummi blocks." Sora nodded and turned towards the dog.

"Thanks." The dog seemed to nod and went back to celebrate the reunion of a portion of his family. "Well, we should go." The two anthros nodded and headed for the door. Sora took a second to wave good-bye before following the two anthros outside. They had to deal with the Heartless again while they made their way to the alley. Then they had to get rid of the Heartless in the alley while they looked for the entrance to the sewer. Goofy eventually found some loose boards over the opening of what looked like a tunnel. So, the three removed the loose boards and went into what was presumably a very clean sewer.

Inside, they found Leon carefully swinging his gunblade around with Aerith watching him. There were also three puppies napping off to the side. What was really out of place was the nice sun mural on the wall around 30 feet away from them. Aerith seemed to notice the three before Leon. "Oh, you're back. How did it go?" Then again, Leon was still swinging his sword. Maybe he was just ignoring them. Sora knew a surefire way to get the man's attention though.

"Some weird stuff happened with the Keyblade." That got Leon to stop.

"What happened?"

"There were these weird beams of light and a locking sound," explained Goofy. Leon thought for a second.

"Did the beam go into an object shaped like a keyhole?" The three nodded. "You found the Keyholes of the worlds." The three blinked.

"What's a Keyhole?" asked Goofy.

"Every world among the stars has a Keyhole. This Keyhole leads towards the heart of the world," explained Leon. He looked towards the mural for a moment. "This world too must have a Keyhole."

"Why do you know this?" asked Sora.

"It's in Ansem's report," explained Aerith. Sora raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you didn't have any copies."

"One of the moogles here read a couple of them before his world was destroyed," said Aerith. Sora stared in disbelief.

"…You got this information from a Moogle?" Aerith shrugged in a 'What does it matter?' manner. Leon decided to continue his speech.

"The Heartless enter the Keyhole and do something to the world's core."

"What happens to the world?" asked Sora, although he had a pretty good idea.

"Eventually, it disappears." The two anthros' eyes widened.

"What? !" Sora was a bit more calm.

"I think I know where the one for Destiny Islands was…" He sighed. "Oh well, too late for that…"

"Anyway, once you lock the Keyholes, the Heartless can't reach the world's heart," said Leon. "That's why your Keyblade is so important. It's the only thing that can lock the Keyholes."

"That means you're the only one who can do this," continued Aerith. She held her hands in a begging position and made her eyes big and shimmery. "Please, you're the only one who can do it." Sora sweatdropped slightly, but was unable to resist Aerith's puppy dog eyes.

"Okay, okay! I'll do it!" Leon shook his head.

"Another victim…" Sora sweatdropped again. Did this happen often? "Well, seeing other worlds will probably serve you well. Plus, you still haven't found your friends, right?" Sora shook his head.

"No, I haven't found anything."

"We haven't seen any sign of King Mickey either," said Donald.

"You'll just have to keep looking," said Leon. "Now, if there's anything else…" Sora summoned the Jungle King. Leon gave it an odd look. "What is that?"

"It's the Keyblade. I changed the charm on the end, and it changed shape," explained Sora. He pointed at the chain on his arm. "A chain wrapped around my arm and the original charm showed up on it. I don't know where the chain came from." Leon frowned.

"The Keyblade can change its form?"

"Looks that way," said Aerith. "We never knew what its powers are. Is it really so surprising that it has such an ability?" She had a point. She turned to Sora. "I wouldn't worry about it. It'll probably happen at least a few more times if you continue to travel." Sora shrugged.

"It's as good an explanation as any."

"We also found these odd gummi blocks," said Goofy, holding out the two gummi blocks they'd found. "Do you know what they're for?"

Leon stared. "…" And stared. "…" And stared. "…" Aerith rolled her eyes and turned towards the travelers.

"Ask Cid. He should know."

"We'll do that," said Donald. The three turned to leave.

"Wait." They turned toward Leon. "Take this with you." He tossed Sora a black, rectangular stone. The feel of it reminded Sora of materia. He looked it over to see if there was anything special about it, but didn't see anything.

"What is it?"

"A stone with mysterious power. I've been carrying it for luck. I want you to hold onto it."

"How do I use it?"

"…" Sora sweatdropped. Leon gave him a magic stone that he didn't know how to use. Maybe it was like some materia and had to be leveled up before it could be used. Sora slipped it into one of his pockets.

"We should probably leave and see Cid now," said Donald.

"Wait. There's something I'd like to talk with Sora about," said Aerith.

"Okay."

"It's personal. Can we talk over there?" She gestured towards where the three puppies were. Sora shrugged and walked over to them. The puppies woke up and went straight for him. Sora grinned and petted them. Aerith smiled at the sight. "Leon's been trying to get the puppies to their home, but they're afraid to leave because of the Heartless outside."

"They must've smelled the other puppies on me from when we brought them to their house."

"Oh, you found some of them?" Sora nodded.

"Yeah, it sounds like there's still a lot left though. Is that all you wanted to talk about?"

At that, Aerith's expression became solemn. "Sora, what is that singing around you?" Sora frowned.

"Singing?" Aerith nodded.

"It's strange. I can make out the words, but I've never heard any of them before. The voices seem so depressed…but also full of hope. It's an odd combination."

"Wait a minute. I've heard that description before." Sora stood at his full height so that he could look Aerith almost straight in the eye. "Kimihiro said the same thing." Aerith looked surprised.

"Someone else can hear it? Is he…an Ancient?" Sora nodded.

"That's what everyone thinks. You must be one too though if you can hear the singing as well." Aerith nodded.

"Yes, I'm an Ancient, on my mother's side. My father was an ordinary human." Aerith closed her eyes, holding her hands to her chest. "I thought I was the only one left. So there's more."

"You think there's more than just you and Kimihiro?" Aerith smiled and nodded.

"Yes, you." Sora's eyes widened.

"You think I'm a…" Sora sighed and he put his hands behind his head in a thinking position. "Okay, you're not the first person to think that, but I don't think the chances of me being an Ancient are very good."

"But there is a chance?"

"…" Sora dropped his hands. "I can use materia more easily than most people, and it seems stronger when I use it. In addition, I don't seem to suffer any detrimental effects from mako exposure or other procedures that, in theory, would work better on Ancients than normal humans. And I can see ghosts. The only other person I know who has any of that in common with me is Kimihiro…And when I was in another world, the knowledge of how to do a spell just popped into my mind. I don't know why."

"I've never handled materia, so I don't know about that part, but I can see spirits and learned how to use magic on my own too," said Aerith.

"Where do you think that knowledge comes from? I'd seen Donald use it a few times, but he'd never explained it to me."

"I don't think it has to do with being an Ancient." Sora blinked in surprise.

"You don't?" Aerith shook her head.

"No. Every time I learned a new spell, it was when I was in a situation when I was afraid I was going to lose someone important to me." Aerith smiled. "What was the spell, and what happened?" Sora frowned as he remembered the events.

"Goofy got shot in the chest and I used Cure." Aerith smiled and nodded.

"See? You learned Cure because you felt you needed to know it at that exact moment." Sora sighed.

"It still doesn't make much sense. You're making it sound like a limit break or something." Aerith frowned at this.

"Sora, what was your childhood like?" Sora blinked.

"What?"

"I'm curious."

"…" Sora averted his eyes. "I don't like talking about it." Aerith got a concerned look on her face.

"It was bad?"

"At some points. The rest of it wasn't necessarily bad, just…I don't know…intense. I've lived with people trained to kill for as long as I can remember…Death has always been so close…The thought of myself or those close to me dying doesn't bother me at all." Aerith frowned, looking worried and sad.

"I see, you have a completely different set of values than most people." At this Aerith suddenly smiled. "I think those values are changing though if you learned Cure in that situation." Sora blinked. "By the end of your journey, I think you'll understand why you learned that spell." Sora frowned.

"You think I'm changing?" Aerith grinned and nodded.

"Yeah, but in a good way. I can't wait to see you when you've changed. I bet your eyes will be much happier by then." Sora blinked a couple of times.

"What do you mean?"

"You smile a lot, but most of the time your eyes seem so…sad…and full of pain. I'd like to see you again when they match…" Sora sighed.

"I can't believe you noticed…Okay, I'll come see you after this is all over. You can tell me if I'm still faking." Aerith grinned.

"It's a deal." They shook on it. Aerith took a look at the little puppies. "Are you taking them with you?" Sora shrugged.

"Might as well." Sora bent down, scooped the puppies up, and walked over the waiting group.

"You two done?" asked Donald. Sora nodded.

"Yeah, Aerith was just curious about something she noticed. We can leave now. Let's drop these guys off with their parents and go see Cid."

"Be careful. Those three don't want to leave," said Leon. Sora shrugged.

"They gotta leave sometime." That said, Sora went towards the exit. The puppies started squirming, but Sora kept his grip on them as they left the sewers. When no Heartless showed up, they relaxed slightly.

"Good thing we got rid of the Heartless earlier, huh guys?" said Goofy.

"Just be thankful it takes a bit of time for 'em to repopulate an area," said Donald. The puppies finally got out of Sora's grip and ran over to a boarded up section of alley. They started pawing at it and whimpering. The travelers walked over to the puppies.

"You guys find something?" asked Goofy. Sora tapped the wood a couple of times. It wasn't too sturdy.

"Stand back." Sora walked back about 15 ft, turned, and ran toward the wall, hitting it with his shoulder and elbow. The wood splintered, and Sora broke through it. Sora looked to see what had caught the puppies' attention and saw three more puppies looking up at him. "More puppies…"

The three were quite happy to find a back door into the Dalmatians' house in the alley. The puppies were reunited with the present members of their family. The Dalmatians gave the travelers another gummi piece. Then they had to fight their way through the Heartless that had respawned in the second district to reach Cid's shop in the first district.

"Hey Cid! We got something to ask you about!" said Sora.

"Hm?" Cid looked up from a magazine he was looking at. "Well? I don't got all day. What is it?" Goofy held up the two gummi blocks. Cid raised an eyebrow when he saw it. "It's a gummi block split in two. You couldn't tell?"

Donald huffed. "We know that! What we don't know is what it's for."

"You gotta be fucking kidding me. You're flyin' a * censor * gummi ship, and you don't know a fucking thing about navigation gummis? ! Bunch a *censored * pinheads. Innerspace ain't a fucking playground."

"Hey! What else are we supposed to use to travel to other worlds?" said Sora, rather indignant. "We're supposed to save the world. We kind of need to use them."

Cid waved a hand to dismiss Sora's reasoning. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. A navigation gummi allows you to go to new worlds. I'll install it onto your ship, but you gotta do me a favor first." Sora cocked his head to the side and crossed his arms. What sort of errand would Cid want them to do?

"Yeah?"

"Deliver this book for me." Cid handed Sora a very old book that looked like it was missing a few pages. "It's really old, so be careful. When the old man brought it in, it was falling apart and wasn't worth crap. Couldn't even fully restore it. That's the best I could do. Just take it to him. He lives in the house behind that red door in the third district. Ya can't miss it."

"Sounds easy enough," said Sora. "Are you the guy who makes the gummi ships?"

"Yeah. They're not airships, but they're close enough."

"Oh, so that's why the controls are so similar." Sora turned to leave, but then a loud ringing sound rang out and shook the shop. Sora slapped his hands over his ears. "What the fuck? !"

"Oh, that's the bell in the gizmo shop in the second district," explained Cid. "I guess you can check it out, but you better deliver that book for me first. When you're done with that, go to the house in the third district. We wanna talk to you guys some about the Heartless."

"We'll be there," said Donald.

"By the way…" Cid pointed up. "There's a synthesis shop upstairs. You can get to it if you pull down that ladder. The moogles are complaining that the forge has gone out though."

Sora gave Cid a look. "Moogles?"

"Yeah, turns out they're real here." Sora shrugged and looked at the ladder on the ceiling. He shrugged, jumped up, grabbed it, and pulled it down. "Lighting the fireplace should restart the furnace."

"If it's that simple, why don't you do it?" asked Donald.

"Does it look like I care about shit like that?" Sora rolled his eyes at the mechanic and shot a quick Fire into the fireplace. After making sure that it wasn't going out, they climbed the ladder to the second floor.

"Welcome, kupo! May we help you, kupo?" Sora stared at the moogle for a second out of shock.

"We got some materials for synthesis. You got a list of what you can make with the materials?" said Donald.

"Of course, kupo!" The moogle picked up a thin paperback and handed it to the three. "Just tell us when you're ready to synthesize, kupo." Sora took a look at the catalog. There was normal stuff like cottages and elixirs, some accessories, and some power up items. Sora's eyes widened when they fell on one item in particular.

"_They can make something like that? ! Well, it might just have the same name. I'll have to see about this one. Too bad I have no idea where to get any of this stuff."_ Eventually, they got a cottage, a guard earring, an energy bangle, and a power chain.

"Thank you for choosing to synthesize at Mogsam's Synthesis Shop, kupo! You're the first customers I've had in a long time, kupo! Hey, could you do me a favor, kupo?"

"Sure!" said Goofy.

"Get those dogs out of my shop, kupo!" The moogle (Mogsam?) pointed in a corner where three puppies were sleeping.

"How long have those been here?" asked Sora.

"They came in a couple of weeks ago, kupo. I couldn't get them to leave, kupo."

So, they had to go to the Dalmatians' house again, killing any Heartless that came between them and the house. After dropping off the puppies, they went on their way to the third district, continuing the slaughter of any Heartless that crossed their vision. As promised, the door was easy to find. It was red and had a flame on it. Sora tried to open it, but the knob refused to turn.

"It's locked. I guess I could kick it down…"

"It opens with magic," said Donald. "Fire!" The fireball hit the door, and it clicked open.

"I'm gonna have to remember that," muttered Sora as they walked in.

On the other side of the door was a lake with an island in the middle of it. There was a house on it. Between them and the island were several rocks floating back and forth.

"How'd anyone build a house here?" asked Sora. The two anthros shrugged. It was a good question. Sora took a look at the rocks and then jumped over the first one and onto the second one, then onto the fourth one, then the island. Donald sighed.

"Why does he do that?"

"Do you think he'd show us how to do that?" asked Goofy. Donald shrugged and started jumping across the moving stones. Thankfully, Sora had decided to wait for them outside the building. As soon as they reached him, Sora walked into the building with them following him. It was pretty rundown inside. Sora took out the book.

"Why would Cid want us to take a damaged book to a place like this?"

"There's something about this musty place." Sora's eyes widened. Kairi was walking around the building with her hands behind her, looking around the place with a smile on her face. "It reminds me of the Secret Place back home, where we used to scribble on the walls." She turned to look at him, still smiling. "Remember?"

Then someone was shaking him. "Sora? You okay?" Sora turned to look at Goofy, who looked concerned. Sora then turned back to where Kairi had just been, only she was gone.

"_I'm hallucinating again?"_

"Well, well, you arrived much sooner than expected." The three spun around to see a man with a long white beard, glasses, a bag, a blue robe, a blue pointy hat, and a wooden staff in his left hand. Sora narrowed his eyes when he processed the meaning of the sentence.

"You knew we were coming?"

"Of course!"

"Why?"

"I suppose I should explain. My name is Merlin. As you can see, I am a sorcerer. I spend much of my time traveling." He took a moment to stretch. "It's good to be home. Your king has requested my help."

Goofy perked up. "King Mickey?"

Merlin nodded. "Yes, indeed. So you are Donald, Goofy, and…Who might you be young man?"

"Sora."

Merlin gave him a quick look over. "So, you're the one who found the key…Interesting…"

"So what did the king ask you to do?" asked Donald.

"Just a moment." Merlin stepped onto a pedestal into the middle of the room, put his bag on the ground, opened it, and started waving his arms. "Presto!" Little items immediately started floating out of the bag, growing bigger as soon as they got out. When they reached full size, the items put themselves in what were presumably their proper places. After a few minutes of this, the place looked much homier. "There, much better. Now, your king asked me to train you in the art of magic. We can start any time you like. Just let me know when you're ready to start the training. Oh, and another thing." He pointed at what appeared to be a miniature white carriage. Then it turned into a friendly looking woman with white hair, a blue outfit and a purple bow, and a wand.

"Hello, I'm the fairy godmother. You're king asked me to help too. I will assist you throughout your journey."

"I do not know how much I can be of help, but stop by anytime," said Merlin.

"Actually, we just came to deliver this book." Sora handed the sorcerer the old book.

"Oh, so Cid asked you to bring this book to me?" He chuckled. "Thank you." He set it down on a pedestal before turning back towards the travelers. "You wish to know what kind of book it is?" The two anthros nodded while Sora just put his hands behind his head. "I don't even know myself. In fact, it's not even mine. Somehow, it found its way into my bag one day. It was such a curious book, I asked Cid to repair it for me." He looked at the book again. "This book holds a great secret. The missing pages will unlock it." He looked back at the travelers. "Do look at it whenever you want. Do give my regards to Cid for repairing it for me. Another thing. That stone of yours…You should see the fairy godmother about that.

"Stone?" Then he remembered the stone Leon had given him and pulled it out. "You mean this?" Merlin nodded.

"Yes, this is the Fairy Godmother's expertise though so I suggest you show it to her." Sora shrugged, walked the two feet to her, and held out the stone. She chuckled at this and took a look at the stone. She frowned slightly.

"Poor thing! He has turned into a summon gem!" This interested Sora.

"Is it like a summon materia?"

"It's similar. This little creature lived on a world that was consumed by darkness. When a world disappears, so do its inhabitants. But this one had such a strong heart that he became a gem instead of vanishing with his world." Sora took a look at the gem.

"It's possible to summon him? Will he stay or will he disappear again?"

"You can summon him, but he is only a spirit and will only stay for a short amount of time. Then he will return to the gem. Now, watch!" She waved her wand and touched the gem with it. "Bibbity bobbity boo!" The gem glowed for several seconds. Sora was surprised to suddenly sense a foreign entity in his mind.

"_Who's there? What are you doing in my mind?"_

"_What's going on? Where am I?"_

"_Are you the summon?"_

"_Summon? What are you talking about?"_

"_Okay, I am Sora. And you are…?"_

"_Simba."_

"_Okay, what was the last thing you remember?"_

"_I was swimming with Timon and Pumba, but then…Wait! What happened to them? !"_

"_I don't know. It sounds like they might've disappeared with your world."_

"_No!"_

"_Look, I'm in a similar situation. My world disappeared too. If I get rid of the creatures responsible, the worlds that disappeared will come back. Would you be willing to help me?"_

"…_Yes, but I'm not sure how I can."_

"_We'll work on it, okay?"_

"…_Okay." _And then the presence left his mind. Donald and Goofy were staring at him. The Fairy Godmother was smiling knowingly. Sora had a feeling she knew what had just happened.

"Whenever you call, he will help you. If you find any more of these, please bring them to me. Don't worry, when their worlds are restored, they will return home. Sora, please help them."

"Sure, why not?" With that, he slipped the gem into one of his many pants pockets and turned towards Merlin. "So, how do I use this?"

"You should be able to use it like a summon materia." Sora blinked.

"You know how to use a summon materia?" Merlin chuckled.

"I've come across many things on my travels. That includes those spheres that contain the power of the lifestream of your home world. I also recognize that you have been exposed to mako. That's the extent of my knowledge in that subject though." Sora sighed. For a second, he'd been hoping to see if he had mako poisoning or not.

"Hey guys, come look at this," said Goofy. He was looking at the book.

"What now?" muttered Donald.

"It's glowing."

"The book's glowing?" Sora stepped closer for a better look. It was indeed glowing. "Why is it glowing?" Sora touched a page with his pointer finger, glowed white, and suddenly disappeared. The anthros' eyes widened.

"Sora!"

"Oh my. I'm sorry. I had no idea it could do that," said Merlin.

"Now what are we supposed to do? !" shouted Donald. "We needed him to find the king!"

"The story in that book is for children. Sora will be safe. He just needs to find his way back out," said Merlin.

"How long do ya think that'll take?" asked Goofy.

"I'm not sure," said Merlin. "We'll just have to wait for him."

With Sora, he was blinking and trying to process what just happened. _"I just got sucked into a book."_ He looked down. _"And I appear to be standing on a page…"_ Sora turned around in a circle to see if there was anything that stood out. He sweatdropped slightly when he saw what appeared to be a pop-up of a tree with a door in it. That was the only thing that stood out so he made his way over to it. He stared at it for a moment before reaching out with a hand and touching it. He was then blinded by a flash of light.

When the light faded, Sora found himself standing a few feet away from the tree, only now it seemed to be real, and he was standing on dirt with some plants around him. There was also a yellow bear with a red shirt sitting on a log in front of the tree tapping its head with its paw. It didn't look like a real bear though. It looked more like a stuffed toy, except it was moving. No one else was there, so Sora walked up to it.

"Think, think, think, think." Sora raised an eyebrow. How odd. At least he was pretty sure the bear was male now.

"What are you doing?" The bear looked up, seemingly unsurprised.

"Thinking." Sora rolled his eyes. That was kind of obvious considering he kept saying 'think' over and over again, but Sora decided to try and talk to him anyway.

"About what?"

"I was thinking about how to say goodbye to Pooh." Sora cocked his head.

"Pooh?" Odd name. The bear looked up.

"Yes?" Sora stared for a second before it clicked.

"You're Pooh?"

The bear nodded. "Yes, I'm Winnie the Pooh. Pooh for short. Who are you?"

"Sora."

"Hello Sora. Have you come to say goodbye to Pooh too?" Sora raised an eyebrow at this and sat down next to Pooh.

"I just got here. Why would I need to say good-bye?"

"Because everyone's gone away." Sora blinked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we all lived here in the Hundred Acre Wood," explained Pooh. "And we'd take walks together, or play Pooh sticks…And every day, I'd eat some honey." Pooh sighed. "Just one small smackeral would taste very good right now." Then Pooh got a bit sadder. "But now everyone's gone, all my friends, and my favorite Hunny Tree too. Everyone must've gone away while I was napping, I think…" Pooh was silent for a moment before standing up. "So who knows? Maybe I shall end up going away somewhere as well. But I wonder, how do I say goodbye to myself?" He started tapping his forehead again while walking to the tree with a door. "Think, think, think." He opened the door and walked inside. Sora sat there for a moment.

"_I guess most people would wonder the same thing…"_ Sora stood up again and walked into the house. Inside, Pooh was licking a paw and holding a brown, two-toned pot. He seemed rather sad and was staring morosely into the pot. Sora bent down to Pooh's level. "Something wrong?"

"Oh bother, there's no more honey left." Pooh sighed. "If only the Hunny Tree would visit…Then I could eat my fill…"

"You got a lot of pots here." It was true. Pooh's house was full of pots, presumably full of honey. "There's probably one with honey in it around here." Sora looked at the pots on top of a cupboard that seemed too tall for Pooh to reach. Weirdly enough, it looked like most of them had been full of honey, but had been emptied. Sora did find one about ¾ of the way full which he handed to Pooh. The little bear immediately brightened up.

"Oh, thank you very much Sora." Pooh immediately started stuffing the honey into his mouth.

"Yeah, you're welcome." Sora went to leave and opened the door. He blinked. There was an owl standing in front of the door.

"Hello." Oh, the owl could talk too. "Let me guess: You'd like to know what happens next."

"Well, yeah, this is kind of weird. Wait a minute. Do you know something?"

"No. Some of the pages are missing, so I can't know."

"The pages?" Then something clicked in Sora's mind. "Pooh's friends are missing because the pages are missing?" The owl nodded.

"The pages are scattered over many worlds. Would you find them for us?" Before Sora even had a chance to answer, a strong wind suddenly picked him up and flung him back. Sora pushed himself up, and found himself looking at Goofy and Donald.

"You're back!" said the knight.

"What happened?" asked Donald. Sora looked over at the innocent looking book.

"I think there's a world inside that book."

"That's not very unusual," said Merlin. "Often, the story written in a book becomes a world all its own. It is possible to travel to these worlds, but only with the books with the story, and only a very small percentage of the books can serve as a portal, usually one. No one is really certain how these worlds can exist in books or the true nature of them. I've heard that there are ways to bring beings from these worlds out of the books, but that it has a high price."

"There's something wrong with it." Merlin blinked.

"The Heartless? They can reach those worlds?"

"No, I didn't see any. It was something else." Sora explained what he'd been told while in the Hundred Acre Woods. When he was done, Merlin was rubbing his chin in thought.

"So individuals and parts of the world have disappeared because some of the pages were torn out…"

"That's what it looks like," said Sora, crossing his arms. "And that owl asked me to find the missing pages."

"Are you gonna go look for them?" asked Goofy. Sora shrugged.

"If I see them, I'll bring them back, but that's it."

"C'mon, let's go. Cid said we were gonna talk about the Heartless in the third district," said Donald.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Merlin. "At night time, Heartless activity increases exponentially. I think even you would have difficulty. I suggest you stay here for the night. You and Sora can practice magic a bit. I'd offer to let Goofy practice too, but he can't use magic."

"I'm okay with it," said Sora. "I need to figure out how to use that summon any way."

"It is a good opportunity to improve my magic…," said Donald.

"Hey, you guys agreed on something!" said Goofy. Sora and Donald blinked a couple of times. Then they decided they didn't care and it wasn't worth it.

"Well then, to my lab." Merlin tapped the floor with his staff, and the section of floor they were on rose up through a hole in the roof to a room that was noticeably bare. Merlin made a grand sweep with his spare arm. "You can practice here to your heart's content. Only magic will work on the objects I summon though." With that, Merlin snapped his fingers and several floating tea pots and cabinets appeared.

"We're beating up furniture?" asked Sora.

"Don't worry. It's easy to fix," said Merlin.

"Fire!" Donald blew up a cabinet. Then the pieces flew back together, making another cupboard.

"That'd come in handy at my house," said Sora, remembering all the times walls and furniture had been destroyed due to spats. Then he held the Keyblade forward, pointing at another cupboard. "Fire!" This one was blown up as well. Sora and Donald continued to cast various spells on the poor furniture until Merlin stopped and told them some ways they could improve their spell casting.

"Are you going to try your summon now?" asked Merlin. Sora pulled out the summon gem and looked at it before nodding. He tried to use it like he would a summon materia. This seemed to work, as he could feel an unfamiliar power flow through him. Sora spun the Keyblade a few times, slashed it diagonally twice to make an 'X,' and then held it straight up. A light flew out of the tip, and the shadowed silhouette of a lion appeared behind Sora. Then it cleared up, and a lion with a red mane was standing next to him with a confused look on his face. Sora looked at him in surprise.

"You're Simba?"

"_You're Sora? What are you?"_

"I'm a human. Donald's a duck. I'm pretty sure Goofy's some sort of dog."

"_A human? I've never heard of a human before."_

"I wouldn't worry about it. Humans aren't that different from animals."

"_What are those?"_

"Tea pots. And Cupboards. We're destroying them, like this. Fire!" Sora shot a tea pot, which shattered. "Think you can do that?"

"_I can't shoot fire."_ And then he disappeared. Sora blinked and shrugged.

"Guess there's a time limit. What's with you guys?" Donald and Goofy were giving him confused looks and Merlin was thoughtful.

"You were talking to it," said Donald.

"Yeah, he had some questions."

"Oh, you can understand him?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah, that's unusual?"

"It is uncommon. I know Aerith can communicate with her summons, but no one else seems to be able to," said Merlin. "I guess it's something you two have in common. Or maybe it's just the Keyblade. Hard to say."

"How does Simba use his attacks?" asked Sora. "He doesn't seem to know how."

"Try channeling some mana to him. That should work. He should be able to claw and bite like a normal lion if that doesn't work, and that should be pretty strong on its own. There's a reason the lion is called the King of the Beasts." Sora nodded and summoned Simba again.

"Okay, I'm gonna try something." Sora channeled his magical energy to Simba. After a couple of seconds of this, Simba suddenly let out a loud roar, shattering nearby tea pots and cupboards. Sora grinned. "Nice." Simba looked a little surprised.

"_That's never happened before…"_

"Well, I think that's enough for now," said Merlin. "I'll get you some beds for the night." He then magiced up three beds. Sora dismissed Simba, and the three climbed into the beds. There wasn't really much else they could do at the moment.

_It was dark. Very dark. It took Sora a moment to realize that this was because his eyes were closed. He struggled to open his eyes, but his eyelids were so heavy, it took a very long time. Sora finally managed to open them, only to find that his vision was badly blurry, and the room he was in was only dimly illuminated by a faint blue light. Sora tried to sit up, but a wave of pain caused him to let out a yell of pain and fall back down on the hard bed he was on._

"_Careful!" Sora tried to tilt his head towards the voice. All he could make out was dark hair and mismatched eyes. "You were pretty badly hurt. It's gonna be a few days before you can get out of bed." Sora stared at the mismatched eyes as the pain in his chest continued to pulse. He started to tear up as he thought about what was causing it._

"_It hurts…" A hand brushed the hair off his sweaty forehead. Then the hand rested on his forehead, cooling it off slightly._

"_It's not just physical. It's also the worst type of emotional pain. It's okay. You don't have to hold it in. Just let it out." Sora choked out a sob. Then he started sobbing and sobbing, not able to stop, and not wanting to._

Sora bolted up, clutching at his heart and panting. _"Another dream?"_ Sora groaned and palmed his face. _"Why am I having these dreams now? It's been years."_

"Are you okay?" Sora looked up and saw Goofy looking concerned at him. Donald and Merlin weren't there. "You looked like you were having a nightmare."

"It's nothing. Just a memory." Sora got out of bed and stretched slightly. Once again, he hadn't bothered to take off any of his clothes before going to sleep. "Where are Donald and Merlin?"

The knight pointed down. "They're downstairs, eating breakfast," said Goofy.

"Okay, well, let's go get some food," said Sora, walking to the moving patch of floor.

"Sora?" Sora looked back at Goofy. He looked worried. "Are ya sure you're okay?" Sora put a smile on his face.

"Yeah, it's not a horrible memory. I was just in a lot of pain at the time. Are you coming or not?" Goofy nodded and walked over to the patch of floor, which then moved down back to the study where Donald and Merlin were sitting at a table. Donald was eating some kind of oatmeal. Merlin wasn't really eating. He just seemed to be thinking, but perked up when he saw Sora and Goofy.

"Good morning. I was getting worried. You wouldn't wake up, and it sounds like you usually are up before these two." Sora shrugged.

"I guess I must be a little rusty." He sat at the table and spooned some oatmeal into his bowl.

"What were you dreaming about anyway?" asked Donald.

"Nothing important. Just a memory," said Sora. Donald raised an eyebrow. Sora ignored this as he didn't feel like sharing any more information. After they finished breakfast they left the house.

"Hey, there's a chest over there," said Goofy, pointing at a smile island a few feet away from the island Merlin's house was situated on. Curious to see what was in it, Sora jumped over and opened it. He twitched when three spotted heads poked out of the chest.

"It's another one of those puppy chests!" shouted Sora. Donald and Goofy groaned. They had gotten used to these, but it was still annoying. It looked like they'd have to wait to go to the house with the meeting in it. Sora jumped back to Merlin's island with the puppies, and they all jumped across the moving stones to the door out of the cave. As soon as they stepped out of the door, a couple of Soldier Heartless popped up. However, before Sora even unsheathed the Keyblade, something slashed through them. Sora stared in shock as Riku, with a sword that looked like a demon wing, turned to look at him.

"There you are." Riku jerked his head backwards towards where the Heartless had been. "What's going on?" Donald was giving him a suspicious look. Goofy had cocked his head in interest. Sora stepped up to Riku and started poking him. "Hey!" Then Sora grabbed the sides of his mouth and started stretching them. Riku knocked him away. "Cut that out!" Sora grinned.

"You're real!" Riku looked confused.

"I keep hallucinating about Kairi. I was afraid I was beginning to hallucinate about you to." Then a look of realization dawned on Sora's face. "Wait. Where's Kairi?" Riku looked confused.

"Isn't she with you?" Sora shook his head.

"No, I've been looking for her too…" Riku thought for a moment.

"Well, I'm sure she got off the island. She's probably looking for us right now." He nodded as a Shadow decided to appear behind him. Sora narrowed his eyes at it. "We'll all be together soon. Don't worry. Just leave everything to me. I know this-" Sora got tired of waiting for Riku to notice the Heartless, so he cut the Shadow in two with the Keyblade. Riku blinked and turned around where Sora was standing. Sora smirked slightly at Riku.

"I think you need to pay more attention to your surroundings first." Riku rolled his eyes.

"You're still the same."

"You mean he's always been like this?" asked Donald. Riku jerked his head towards the two anthros and narrowed his eyes.

"Sora, who are they?"

"Oh, they're looking for their king," explained Sora. "They have a gummi ship so I'm traveling with them to look for you and Kairi. Been to three other worlds looking for you two." Sora grinned again. "Guess I won't have to look for you now. We just have to find Kairi."

"Really?" There was something about Riku's tone that worried Sora. "I never would've guessed."

"And guess what!" said Goofy. "Sora's the Keyblade master! Who would've thought it?" Sora shrugged.

"I still like my daggers more."

"So this is a Keyblade?" Sora blinked. Somehow, Riku was holding the Keyblade, and Sora hadn't noticed that he was no longer holding it. Sora would've found this odd if not for the fact that the Keyblade is ridiculously light. Really, he doesn't get how it can cause so much damage. Sora just decided to shrug it off.

"That's what everyone says. You want it?" Riku blinked.

"You don't want it?" Sora grimaced and put his hands behind his head.

"The only upside I can find about it is that it's easier to kill Heartless with it. Everyone in this world is convinced I'm some chosen one just 'cause I showed up with it. I'd rather find you, Kairi, and the Tsviets." Riku snorted. He didn't seem that surprised. Then he grinned.

"Catch!" He tossed the Keyblade, and it disappeared before reappearing in Sora's hand. The other three blinked.

"Huh, that was kinda cool," said Sora, looking the Keyblade over. "I think you might be better at using this than me."

"What? !" shouted Donald. He was ignored.

"So, you're coming with us." Riku raised an eyebrow. Sora seemed to be saying this as a statement not a question. "We've already looked in a few worlds for Kairi, so she's not in those. We're getting a navigation gummi installed in our gummi ship so we can go to more worlds she might be in."

"He can't come!" said Donald. Sora gave him a glare.

"Either he comes or I leave!"

"What? !"

"You heard me! He's my friend, and I don't want to lose him again!"

"I don't care!"

"Uh, guys? He's gone," said Goofy. He pointed where Riku had been. Sora looked at the spot where Riku had been. For a second he seemed upset, sad. Then he gave Donald a look capable of freezing magma, killing a legion of Heartless, scaring Kuja, making Garland think he would either be useful or a threat, and then some. This of course, meant Donald froze up. Sora grabbed the puppies, which were also frozen by his look, and stormed off. Goofy managed to shake it off first.

"Gawrsh, maybe you shoulda let him come with us." Donald shook his head.

"We have to be careful of the world order. We can't take too many people or we'll mess it up."

"Yeah, but Sora seemed pretty angry about it," said Goofy. "Do you think he'll come back?"

"He has to. He can't travel without our ship." Donald started walking off. He stopped when he saw Goofy wasn't following. "C'mon, we gotta get to that house."

"Donald, I think we're using Sora, but I wanna be his friend…" Donald sighed.

"I know you don't like it, but our priority is to find His Majesty, and we need the Keyblade master to do that."

"I know, but it doesn't seem right…" With that said, they spent a few minutes looking for the house they were supposed to meet in. Inside the house were Cid, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith.

"It's about time you bozos got here!" shouted Yuffie pointing at them accusingly. Then she narrowed her eyes and cocked her head. "Wait a minute. You're one short."

"Well, Sora and Donald kind of had a fight…" said Goofy. He wasn't exactly sure how to describe it.

"Any idea when he'll get here?" asked Leon. Just then Sora came in with a slightly upset look on his face.

"There you are!" said Donald. This was a bad idea as Sora gave him the same look that he had earlier.

"Holy crap! That actually looks worse than the Squall Death Glare!" shouted Yuffie, pointing at Sora.

"It's Leon."

"Can we get this fucking meeting started already? !" Sora stopped glaring at Donald and gave Cid his full attention. Aerith giggled.

"I think we're ready." Cid rolled his eyes before getting serious.

"You guys ever hear of Maleficient? I hear she's in town."

"Who's Maleficient?" asked Sora.

"She's a bitch! A fucking * bleeped * shit of a bitch!" That's Cid for ya. Sora found it slightly amusing. Guy swore more than anyone he'd ever known.

"She's the reason this town is full of Heartless," said Leon. "Don't take her lightly."

Aerith nodded. "She's been using the Heartless for years."

"We lost our worlds thanks to her," said Leon.

"Yeah, one day, a swarm of Heartless just appeared," said Cid.

"My world was lost 9 years ago," said Leon.

"For the rest of us it's been 7 years," said Yuffie.

"I got out of that * censor * mess and came here with those two," said Cid, pointing at Aerith and Yuffie. "Leon won't tell us how he got here."

"That's awful!" said Donald. He actually seemed to be sincere.

"The leader of my world was a wise man called Ansem," said Leon. "He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless."

"If we had his reports, we could get rid of those ******fucking Heartless," said Cid. Sora put his hands behind his head.

"Too bad the pages got scattered."

"Yeah, but I bet Maleficient's got most of the pages, * bleep *" muttered Cid.

"Man, can you say a sentence without a bad word?" asked Yuffie.

While Cid said something rather colorful to Yuffie, the group was being watched from a rooftop by Riku and the woman with the horns. The woman gestured towards the group. "You see? It's just as I told you. While you toiled away, searching for your friend, he quite simply…replaced you with some new some companions. Evidently, now he values them far more than he does you." She placed her hand on Riku's shoulder while the boy continued to look at Sora, who seemed to be amused by Cid's outburst. "You're better off without that wretched boy. Now, think no more of him, and come with me. I'll help you find what you're looking for." With that, she turned and started walking away. With one last glance towards Sora, Riku turned to follow the sorceress.

Back in the house, Cid was done blowing up at Yuffie and turned to Sora. "You deliver that book?" Sora nodded. "Good, one less thing for me to do. I installed the navigation gummi. If you find anymore, bring 'em to me. I also threw in a warp gummi so you can warp to worlds you've already been to. That way you can take care of this problem faster. As for me, I'm going back to my real job." Sora raised an eyebrow.

"Your real job?"

"Yep, I was just watching the accessory shop for someone. I'll still be in the first district if you need me though." And then the loud bell rang again. Sora yelped and slapped his hands over his ears. Yuffie pointed at him and laughed. Aerith gave him a sympathetic look.

"Your hearing's sensitive enough that the ringing hurts it, huh?" Sora nodded. "I thought so. Don't worry though. It doesn't ring too often." Aerith looked thoughtful and put her fist under her lips. "Although, I've been thinking." Sora uncovered his ears and blinked.

"About what?"

"There's a legend about the bell over the gizmo shop," explained Yuffie. "Something good's supposed to happen if you ring it three times."

"But it's all boarded up," said Aerith. "Nobody can get in."

"That's not a problem! Sora can break through boards really easy!" said Goofy. Yuffie sighed and shrugged.

"That figures."

"* bleep * If you can get in, then go check it out," said Cid. "Ring the fucking bell three times and see if anything happens."

"Sure," said Sora.

"Really?" said Donald. That was a bit out of character for Sora.

"Yeah, I still have some misplaced aggression to work out," said Sora with a glower towards the duck.

"Misplaced aggression?" asked Yuffie.

"I think he's still angry at Donald," whispered Goofy.

"Well, that sucks," said Yuffie. The three travelers left the house shortly after this and went to the second district. After taking care of the Heartless that they ran into, they found a door with a sign next to it that said Gizmo shop. The inside didn't look like a shop. It had some clocks and platforms. As soon as they entered, some heartless showed up. There were 2 Green Requiems and 4 Heartless that looked similar to Soldiers except they had aviator caps and goggles with tiny propellers on the top and a pair of leathery wings. Sora took a quick look.

"_Air Soldier. Figures. Nothing too special. Just can fly."_ Sora grinned and did something he hadn't done since fighting Cloud: He let loose. He jumped up, let out a slash, and landed behind the six Heartless. The Heartless fell to the ground and dispersed. Goofy and Donald shared a look. Sora had been acting violent since they left Leon's house, and they were pretty sure they knew why. The rest of the Heartless that showed up were also quickly and violently dealt with by the young Tsviet. Fortunately, there weren't too many between them and the back door. On the other side of the door was a ladder that led to the roof. On the top of the roof was all the different kind of spell-casting Heartless. Goofy managed to slice a Red Nocturne in half. Donald hit a Blue Rhapsody with Fire. By then, Sora had killed all the other ones.

"Sora, are you okay?" asked Goofy. Sora gave a grin, which was obviously supposed to be fake.

"Oh, I'm fine. Everything's great!" The sarcasm in his voice was overwhelming. Then he walked over to some boards that were blocking an alcove and started kicking them down.

"I think you should've just let his friend come," said Goofy.

"No kidding," muttered Donald. "This is kind of creepy." There was a loud cracking sound as Sora finished breaking down the boards and tossed the pieces away. There was a ladder in the alcove which Sora climbed up. At the top was a rope. He pulled out a couple of ear plugs, put them in, and pulled the rope, ringing the bell. Down below, there was a fountain with a mural on it. When Sora rang the bell, the mural rotated (seems it was a cube) to a different picture. Donald and Goofy watched this happen.

"Is that it?" asked Donald. "That doesn't seem so great."

"That was only once though," pointed out Goofy. Sora rang the bell again and the mural turned to another picture. Sora rang it one last time, and the mural turned to another picture. This time though a blue sheet of light appeared in front of it with a keyhole in it. The anthros' eyes widened.

"The Keyhole!" Sora looked down from where he was and took out the earplugs.

"The Keyhole? Guess I better lock it." With that, he jumped down from the alcove, walked past the anthros, and jumped off the building and to the ground.

"Hey!" shouted Donald. "Wait for us!" He jumped down after Sora. Goofy shrugged and jumped down as well. Sora calmly walked towards the Keyhole but stopped a few feet away from it. Then he jumped up just as a giant suit of armor identical to the last one dropped down from the sky.

"I thought we took care of that!" shouted Donald.

"Maybe there's more than one," said Goofy. Sora didn't care and he leapt at the armor and started hitting it as quick as he could. The armor tried to punch him, but Sora jumped back to avoid it. Donald took advantage of it and cast a Blizzard spell. The armor sent a hand at him, but this left it open to Sora who hit it with the Keyblade hard enough to knock it a couple of feet back. The armor shook a couple of times. Then it put its hands on the ground and the head floated off as it did a handstand. As it finished doing the hand stand, its feet changed to resemble pincers and its head put itself on its former bottom and the visor opened. Sora froze up at this.

"_That's not right!"_ And that's not all that ran through his mind. He immediately wondered how other people would react.

Weiss: "Is this one of Hojo's weird experiments?"

Nero: "That. Is. Disgusting."

Seren: "Huh? Oh well, don't care. Still gonna kill it."

Rosso: "The fuck? !"

Ash: Laughs hysterically while pointing.

Azul: "Is this supposed to help it?"

Kimihiro: "This isn't the weirdest thing I've ever seen…" Sighs. "That sure says a lot about my life…"

Chris: Raises an eyebrow. "…"

Zoro: "Great, I must be drunk."

Kyo: "Ha! Asshole!"

Zakuro: "Now what? !"

Ed: "Holy-Why would-That's not-Oh forget it! Not like it can do anything worse than this."

Sora shuddered at the imagined reactions. This was the only reason the altered armor was able to hit him into a wall. Sora let out an odd choking sound. "Heal!" _"No one must ever know of this."_ With the disturbing thoughts over, Sora launched himself at the armor and bashed a pincer to the ground. He then continued to bash it, making the two anthros sweatdrop. The armor just backed away from Sora and decided to go for the two sane ones. They were able to defend themselves though. Goofy blocked one of the clawed feet with his shield while Donald cast a Thunder spell. Sora continued to bash the pincer like a mad man. He didn't seem to notice the rest of the armor was busy.

"What's wrong with him? !" shouted Donald. "Can't he see we need some help? !" At that moment, Sora finally shattered the pincer he'd been bashing. Then he rushed over and hit one of the feet to the ground and started bashing it. He still didn't seem to notice that Donald and Goofy were having problems. The armor tried to hit Sora with its pincer, but Sora hit it away and continued bashing the foot. It shattered before the armor could do anything else. This seemed to be enough for the armor. It dropped to the ground and started spinning around, much like the last armor they had fought. They all had to run every which way to avoid it. Donald hit it with another Blizzard spell, freezing it to the ground. Sora and Goofy started bashing the incapacitated armor until it broke free, but Sora hit the other pincer extra hard, causing the pincer to break in two. The armor tried to grab Goofy with its foot, but Sora hit it to the ground and started bashing it mercilessly. The rest of the armor did something odd. The head floated off, the body changed position so that the narrow end was pointing at Goofy and Sora, and the head floated down to the spot in the middle of the body. A dark ball of energy started building up on the end that was pointing towards the two. Sora either didn't notice or didn't care. Goofy jumped in front of Sora with his shield held up. Sora noticed this and looked up just as the foot finally broke. Then the armor fired the energy at them. Donald's eyes widened.

"Aero!" Donald blinked. He didn't remember knowing that spell before. It wasn't a bad thing though. The only problem was that the spell would only work on one person, and Donald had no idea which person it had been used on. He was rather surprised when the dust cloud the blast had caused cleared and both Goofy and Sora had a wind shield. Sora raised an eyebrow.

"That's new. What sort of spell is this?"

"Just get it!" shouted Donald before casting a Thunder spell. The armor floated backwards before Sora ran up to it and started slashing the armor very quickly. The armor tried to speed up its floating away, but Sora threw the Keyblade at it. It was thrown with enough force to go straight through the armor. It let out a strangled squeak/squeal type noise before falling to the ground and crumbled to pieces as a heart floated off and away.

"Finally!" shouted Sora. "That was one of the most wrong things I have ever seen!"

"I don't get it," said Goofy. "It was just another Heartless. What was so bad about it?"

"Did you not see where its head went? !" Goofy's face lit up in realization.

"Oh…I get it!"

"Sora, did you use Aero?" asked Donald.

"Aero? Wait. Was it that wind thing?" Donald nodded. "It's different from the Aero in my world…"

"Did you use it or not?" Sora frowned.

"Yeah, I wasn't even in Wisdom form this time though…"

"Uh, wasn't there something else about that spell?" asked Goofy. It looked like he was trying to remember something.

"You can only cast Aero on one person," said Donald. "Sora and I both just now learned it." That caused Sora to perk up a little.

"Well, if it happened to you too, I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it."

"Aren't you gonna lock that?" asked Donald, pointing at the Keyhole.

"Right." Sora held the Keyblade up and pointed it at the Keyhole. The familiar beam of light shot into the Keyhole and the clicking sound was heard. As the beam and Keyhole disappeared, a gummi block fell from somewhere onto the ground. Goofy picked up the block and gave it a look.

"Guys, this looks like the navigation gummi that we found."

"Well, I guess, that we'll go see if we can find Cid," said Sora.

They looked all around the first district, but they couldn't find him anywhere.

"Let's just look for him later," muttered Donald.

"Yeah, let's just go," said Sora. He wanted to get going and look for Kairi on the new worlds they'd be able to go to.

"We got everything we need, right?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah, we got lots of potions, hi-potions, and ethers from fighting all those Heartless," said Donald.

"Well, let's go then!" Sora started running towards the gates.

"I think he's back to normal," said Goofy.

"Well, that's a relief. He was creepy like that," muttered Donald. With that, they ran after the Tsviet.

**-line break-**

Did anyone else think the Guard Armor's transformation to Opposite Armor was creepy? My reaction upon seeing this was 'Did it just-Holy-That ain't right!' I tried to get what I thought Sora would think. Then I wondered how the other Tsviets would react to this. It might've had something to do with watching 'The Smoking Gun' right before working on that part. Oh well, I thought it was fun.

I did not plan that conversation with Yuffie. That just came out. Just goes to show that Yuffie is somehow able to make you do strange things even when you're the one writing about her.

Let's see, I think that's 36 puppies. It's hard to keep track of those things.

Is Sora an Ancient? He's not sure, but Aerith seems to think he is. Kimihiro is the equivalent of an Ancient in his world so he is considered an Ancient and has powers like one. Whether Sora is an Ancient or not will be revealed in a later chapter.

Did you like the dream sequence? There's a reason I showed this one, but not the one in Deep Jungle. That's a secret right now though.

Personally, I was surprised that Sora wasn't that upset when Riku went and disappeared again. So when I wrote it, I decided to have Sora react how I thought he should react, and he took out his anger on the Heartless.

I think this chapter could use a little work. You guys please tell me any suggestions you might have to make it better, and I'll make those additions. As for now, I'll give you guys two omakes. One is the regular Tsviet one. The other one is something that happens during the chapter.

**Omake: What about the Rest? Part VI**

"Hey, Mirajane! Look what we found!" shouted Natsu. The barkeeper looked up from cleaning her glasses and blinked when she saw what Natsu was talking about. It was a girl, maybe 12 or 13, in an odd gray outfit with glowing blue lines. She had curly blonde and brown hair in a ponytail and blue-green eyes that were glowing. She also had a rather blank look on her face, like she was dead to the world.

"Weird, huh?" said Happy.

"You're one to talk," muttered Lucy. Mirajane smiled at the odd girl.

"Well, nice to meet you. What's your name?"

"Christine the Aquamarine." Monotone. Odd.

"Her name rhymes! Is that cool or what? !" said Natsu.

"So, do you want to join the guild?" asked Mirajane. The girl seemed to have a lot of magical energy so it would only make sense.

"No." Mirajane blinked.

"No?"

"She got dragged here by Lucy because she was using some sort of weird summoning magic," explained Happy.

"Lucy dragged her here? Odd, usually it's Natsu who drags people here." This was true. That was how Lucy ended up joining.

"She can summon creatures without keys! And they weren't anything I've ever seen before! I'm gonna find out what they were!" shouted Lucy.

"…" Chris didn't seem to care. This annoyed Lucy.

"Hey! Do you even hear me? !"

"She cast some really tasty fire magic too!" said Natsu, drooling slightly.

"It's a bit odd that she can use different types of magic," said Happy. "Do you think there's something different about her magic?"

"It is unusual for a person to have more than one type of magic," mused Mirajane. "Do you have any idea why this might be Christine?"

"…"

"Not very talkative, are you?"

"She only talked 6 times on the way here," muttered Lucy.

"Hey, can I have some more of your fire?" asked Natsu. Chris fired a large fireball at the Salamander. Natsu happily grabbed it and started eating it.

"Well, she seemed okay with that," mused Mirajane.

"That's only because he keeps bugging her nonstop to do that when he gets hungry," said Lucy. "I'm pretty sure she's just doing that so she doesn't have to listen to him ask over and over again."

"It's true. She was twitching really bad for a while back there," said Happy.

"…"

"You know, if she's not a member, she can't stay here," said Mirajane.

"She can probably stay with me. Hey! Where'd she go? !" Chris had disappeared while they were talking.

"Maybe she can turn invisible," suggested Happy.

"Don't be ridiculous. If she could, she would've done that days ago! I gotta go find her!" With that Lucy ran off. Mirajane chuckled.

"This should be interesting, don't you think?"

"Aye." Natsu was too busy eating his fireball to answer.

**Omake II: Still Likes Puppies**

Angeal Hewley was dead. He'd been dead for a while. He wasn't sure how long he'd been dead, but he'd guess around 10 years. It was hard to keep track of time when you no longer had a body. If this wasn't weird enough, Angeal had somehow ended up in some weird town where it was usually dark. He wasn't exactly sure how he ended up there from the Lifestream, but it wasn't all bad. It wasn't like there was anyone there who could see him, except for maybe one girl with brown hair in a braid and a pink bow. Whenever he happened to see her, she was looking right at him, probably because he still had those wings growing out of his shoulder. He avoided the young woman as much as possible.

Another thing Angeal found odd were the little black things running around the place. They attacked anything they could, including Angeal. Angeal wasn't sure if they could hurt him, but he could hurt them. Whenever one got close, he hit them with his sword, and easily killed them. Angeal didn't know why he had a sword. He'd given it to Zack. Maybe it had been so important to him that it had left an impression on him. Or maybe he was able to summon a copy of it. Angeal honestly didn't know. He didn't know that much about what happens after death.

On the bright side, he'd found a nice place to stay. It was a pleasant little place. The only things that lived there were a couple of Dalmatian dogs. Angeal had gotten used to the strangeness of Traverse Town by then. He was just fine with his situation. The dogs could see him, which he figured wasn't too weird. Angeal remembered hearing that animals were more sensitive to the spirit world than humans. He could touch the dogs too. He hadn't really been able to keep any dogs for very long in Shinra tower. With his job, he had to travel around a lot. It just wouldn't have been fair for the dogs. Being dead, Angeal no longer had this problem. The only problem was that the two dogs seemed sad about something, and nothing he did would cheer them up.

After several years of living, sort of, like this, Angeal got a big surprise.

"Sora? !" It certainly looked like the small boy, only much older. Even more surprising was that he was looking right at Angeal.

"What 'cha lookin' at Sora?" Well, that proved it. This was indeed Sora. He'd grown a lot since Angeal had last seen him.

"Oh…Nothing." Sora was smirking. Well, Angeal was sure Sora could see him, and he seemed a bit more devious now if that look was any indication. "Let's get those puppies that we found locked in tiny cramped chests."

"What? !" The dogs gave Angeal a surprised look, but that's it. He had a furious look on his face. Whoever put the puppies in the chests was likely to be mauled by the angry SOLDIER, which was just what Sora wanted. Then the odd duck that Sora was with went over to the green glowing circle and did something that caused a lot of puppies to appear. This got Angeal's attention. Most of the puppies ran over to the larger Dalmatians. One wandered over to Angeal and sniffed him curiously. Angeal scratched the puppy behind the ears. Maybe things were starting to look up.

"Well, we should go." Angeal looked up just in time to see the two odd animals walk out the door. Sora stayed behind another second and waved good-bye before going out the door.

"That was odd," mused Angeal. Then another puppy came over to investigate the unusual man, and Angeal decided this was fine by him.

Sora actually showed up a few more times with more puppies, but Angeal was busy and managed to miss him all those other times.


	10. Chapter 10

Okay, this is a mini chapter, maybe a filler chapter. It's just gonna have Sora fighting in the Phil Cup. Yeah…Sora still needs to get some aggression out of his system. I still don't own any of this. On a side note, I've started my second semester of college. It looks like I'll have more work to do, which means slower updates. I will try to work on the chapters when I can, but I will have other things to work on.

**-line break-**

"Hey guys! We got a message!" said Chip.

"There's a tournament at the Coliseum," said Dale. "There's supposed to be a great prize for the winner."

"Okay, let's go see what that prize is," said Sora.

"We can't," said Donald. "We gotta-"

"We're entering the tournament!" Donald took a second to look at Sora. Currently, Sora looked like he wanted to hurt something. Badly. Maybe he was still angry. If that was the case, it would probably be better to let Sora kill Heartless in a fight where their lives were not on the line.

"Fine. We'll go." Sora grinned in a slightly psychotic manner.

"Since you've been there before, you can use that warp gummi to get there immediately," said Chip.

"Just give us a second," said Dale. A few moments later, there was a zapping type noise, and the gummi ship was suddenly in front of Olympus Coliseum.

"Huh. Convenient," said Sora.

"Let's just get this over with," said Donald.

So, they disembarked and went to the lobby of the Coliseum. Phil was waiting there.

"I was wondering if you guys would show up. You entering the games?" Sora grinned.

"Yep."

"Right." Phil scribbled something down…on what appeared to be a stone tablet. Paper must not be around yet on this world. Phil took a look at his stone pad. "Okay, you guys are actually the only people that actually entered. All the other contests are the weird things with the yellow eyes."

"Good. That means I don't have to avoid killing someone." Phil raised an eyebrow at Sora's remark, but decided to ignore it.

"Just go out to the arena for the first match." The small group went to the arena and waited for the first round of opponents to appear. They didn't have to wait long.

The first opponents were 4 Power Wilds and 3 Soldiers. Sora ran up to a Power Wild and cut it in two. Donald used a Thunder to hit all the Heartless while Goofy rammed into a Soldier and killed it. One of the Soldiers tried to tackle Sora, but he sidestepped and beheaded it. Goofy blocked some wild swipes from a Power Wild, before spinning around and hitting it with his shield. Since his new shield had pointy edges, this caused the Power Wild to receive several gouges on its body, and it dispersed. The last Soldier tried going for Donald, but the magician hit it with a Fire spell before it could reach him. One of the remaining Power Wilds decided to try to attack Donald as well, but it was intercepted by Sora who cut it in two horizontally. The last Power Wild was hit by a Blizzard from Donald before it could do anything.

The second round had 3 Power Wilds, 2 Red Nocturnes, 5 Yellow Operas, and 10 Green Requiems. Sora grinned when he saw this as it gave him an excuse to do something. "You don't get any mercy." With that, Sora transformed into his Valor drive. He then moved in and started taking out the spell-casting Heartless faster than his two allies could follow. Then he decapitated the three Power Wilds before they could try to attack him. As soon as the last Heartless fell, Sora transformed back to normal with a satisfied look on his face. "Ah! I needed that!" The two anthros looked at each other. This could not be a good sign.

The third round made them blink a few times. Their opponents were 4 Power Wilds…and a pair of feet that looked suspiciously like Guard Armor's (Sora had actually checked its name, he just never bothered to refer to it as such.) feet.

"Why is there just a pair of feet?" asked Sora. "And there better not be a whole one that tries a handstand!"

The Power Wilds ran forward, but three were sliced apart by Sora. The last one was set on Fire by Donald. Then Sora ran towards the feet. The feet started kicked at him, but he cart wheeled out of the way, and Goofy hit one of the feet off to the side with a quick spin and bash from his shield. Donald cast a Blizzard on this foot, freezing it in place. Sora landed a hard hit on the unfrozen foot. It tried to kick him, but Sora slid out of the way and slashed it several more times. Then Donald hit it with a Thunder and it crumpled to pieces. The other foot finally thawed out and stomped over to the group. Sora threw the Keyblade at it, Donald set it on fire, and Goofy rocketed at it, hitting it with his shield. The foot flew back, hit the invisible wall surrounding the area, and crumbled to pieces.

The fourth round was 5 Red Nocturnes and 5 Yellow Operas. Sora and Donald started casting Blizzards while Goofy stood back and watch. The Heartless didn't last long under the magical assault.

"Well, that was easy," said Sora. Donald just nodded in agreement.

The fifth round had 5 Power Wilds and a Large Body. Donald cast a Fire on the Large Body, while Sora and Goofy went for the Power Wilds. Sora plunged the Keyblade into the chest of the closest Power Wild. Goofy hit another one with his shield a couple of times before bashing it into the ground. Donald cast another Fire on the Large Body. Sora moved on to the next Power Wild and cut it in two diagonally. The last two tried to attack Goofy and Sora. Goofy dodged and threw his shield at the Power Wild. The weapon buried itself deep in the Heartless's head, causing it to dissipate. Sora blocked the attack against him and spun, cutting another Power Wild in two. It looked like the Large Body was about to try to attack them, but Donald cast another Fire before it could and killed it.

The sixth round was 4 Shadows, 3 Blue Rhapsodies, and a pair of familiar floating hands. Sora ran right up to the hands and bashed them to the ground. Donald hit a Blue Rhapsody with a Fire. Goofy started spinning around, hitting nearby Heartless with his shield as he did so. Sora spun, sliced a Shadow trying to sneak up on him in two and went back to bashing the hands. Goofy bashed a couple of Shadows that got too close to him. Donald used another Fire on a Blue Rhapsody. Sora finally finished off the hands and turned around to block a slash from the lone remaining Shadow before using a Fire on it. The Blue Rhapsody fired a Blizzard at Donald, but the magician countered it with a Fire before Goofy bashed the Heartless into the ground.

The seventh round was 2 Large Bodies and 6 Green Requiems. Sora grinned and quickly attacked and killed the Green Requiems before they could do anything. This left the two Large Bodies, which seemed to be confused by what just happened. Sora used Fire on the closer Large Body. It retaliated by sliding towards him, but Sora jumped up and out of the way while throwing the Keyblade down, impaling it right in the center of the Heartless's back. While Sora was dealing with this one, Donald hit the other one with a Blizzard. When it slid towards him, Goofy jumped in and blocked it with his shield. Then he hit it in the back of its neck…or in the general vicinity where it would have one. Donald took advantage of this to use a Fire spell, which incinerated the Heartless.

The eighth round was 4 Power Wilds, a pair of hands, and a pair of feet. Sora twitched. That meant there were enough limbs for two armors.

"How many of these are there?" asked Sora.

"There's lots of most type of Heartless," said Goofy. "I guess that's one of 'em, even if it is strong enough to be a boss."

"Less talking, more fighting," said Donald. He wanted to get this over with so they could go to the next world. "Thunder!"

And the Heartless got hit by a lot of lightning bolts. Then Sora threw the Keyblade at one of the hands, ran up while summoning it back to himself, and hit it hard enough to send it towards the other and knock them off to the side. He jumped after them, bringing the Keyblade down on them hard, causing the more damaged one to shatter. Sora snorted. _"I guess these things aren't as strong when they don't have a body."_

Meanwhile, Goofy was spinning around with his shield, battering the Power Wilds and the feet with his shield until he stopped. Donald used a Blizzard on one of the Power Wilds, causing it to disperse. The others got ready to jump Goofy, but were distracted by the remaining arm being sent flying into a couple of them. Then Sora jumped in and did a spinning move that took out the hand and the two Power Wilds it had hit. Goofy then rocketed into one of the feet while Donald cast Fire on the remaining Power Wild, destroying it. Sora turned to the other metal foot. It tried to kick him, but Sora blocked it and let loose a barrage of slashes before hitting it to the other foot, which Goofy had hit a couple of times. This seemed to be enough, as the two feet crumpled.

The ninth and final round had 4 Blue Rhapsodies, 4 Yellow Operas, and the armored torso of one of the armors, although this one was a more pink-red color than purple.

"Only one? I was expecting at least two," muttered Sora. Donald twitched.

"Don't jinx us!" And then the two of them started using Fire on the Heartless. This took care of the spell-casting Heartless pretty quickly while Goofy moved in to attack the armored torso. He managed to land a couple of hits before it reacted by spinning around. This knocked Goofy back a few feet. By this time, Sora and Donald had taken care of all the spell-casting Heartless. Sora quickly moved in and slashed the torso several times. Donald used a Thunder spell. The torso dropped to the ground and started go all over the place while spinning. By now, the three had gotten used to this move, and they were able to avoid it until both Sora and Donald used Blizzard to freeze it in place. Goofy then rocketed into it, making a loud 'clang' sound. Sora rushed up and started slashing it as fast as he could. Donald hit it with another Blizzard. The torso started to groan and crack. Then it shattered completely as Sora and Goofy hit it as hard they could. They immediately started cheering.

"We won!" shouted Goofy.

"For Daisy!" Sora didn't know who that was. Probably a girlfriend or something. Sora didn't say anything. He just did a couple of slashes and put the Keyblade over his shoulder.

A moment later, they were back in the lobby, which now had a shiny trophy in it with their names on it. "Okay, here's the prize," said Phil. He tossed them a scroll. Sora took a look at it.

"How to use Gravity." Donald lit up.

"I've been working on that one. It'll come in handy."

"Guess we better leave now," said Goofy.

"Yeah, we need to get to the next world and see if the King is there," said Donald, nodding. Sora gave him a look.

"And Kairi."

"Right, her too."

"Hey, Sora, isn't there anyone else you're looking for?" asked Goofy. Sora shrugged.

"They can take care of themselves. Kairi can't. That's why I'm more concerned about her."

"Can we go now?" said Donald, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Sure, nothing else for us to do here," said Sora. And then they left.

**-line break-**

Well, I said it would be short. It is just a filler chapter. Next chapter, they'll actually be in Agrabah. Sora got all the aggression out of his system so he'll be back to normal. Even if this is short, you're still getting an omake.

**Omake: What about the Rest? Part VII**

Weiss sat up and yawned. _"That was a nice nap."_ He scratched his back and froze. _"Wait. This isn't the couch."_ He looked at what he was lying on. It was a metal frame bed with a thin white mattress and a white blanket. And he was wearing a paper dress. This added up to one thing for Weiss. "The infirmary? !"

"Ooh, so close. It's a hospital." Weiss snapped his head towards the speaker. It was a man who looked like he needed a shave and had a cane. He also looked like he didn't care at all about anything. "Now, if you would be so kind to explain what you were doing sleeping in the street we can start figuring out what's wrong with you."

"I was sleeping in the street? But I was sleeping on the couch." Now Weiss was confused. How'd that happen? Was someone playing a prank on him? Probably not. The other Tsviets aren't that suicidal.

"You taking any drugs?" Weiss blinked.

"Huh?" The man, presumably a doctor, rolled his eyes and tapped Weiss's chest with his cane.

"I really doubt those are all natural." Weiss looked at his chest in confusion.

"I think it's natural…" Really, Weiss couldn't be completely sure. The scientists had put all sorts of stuff in him. He was pretty sure that mako was natural though, but did these people even have mako? "I have no idea what they put into me. I guess I could've been giving something that can cause that."

"And who is they?"

"The doctors at DEEPGROUND."

"What?"

"It was probably just my anemia. I sometimes sleep for a while because of it." The doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Anemia?" Weiss shrugged.

"Well, that may not be it exactly, but it's close enough." The doctor rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, if you wanna die. Are you gonna tell me anything useful or am I gonna have to treat you for every disease that has the same set of symptoms as anemia?" Weiss thought for a second. It had been seven years, but this sounded very similar to what happened to him in DEEPGROUND on a regular basis. The only difference was that this was a hospital so the stuff he'd be given was probably less dangerous.

"Go right ahead."

"Suit yourself. Better get ready for a long stay here." The doctor made to move toward the door, but paused. "And for the record, you're in the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. I suggest you contact any family you have."

"Can't. No phones."

"Well, that's poor judgment on your part Muscles." With that the doctor walked out. Weiss shrugged and stretched out on the bed to wait for one of his fellow Tsviets, preferably Nero, to find him and break him out. What was the worst that could happen until then?


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11! Sorry it took so long. I've been busy with college, but I finished this during spring break. They're gonna be in Agrabah! I still own nothing. I can't really think of anything to say in this AN…except if you didn't read the fixed chapter 9, please do so now.

**-line break-**

"So, how do we use that navigation gummi?" asked Sora.

"Cid gave me some instructions," said Goofy waving around a piece of paper. Donald snatched it and looked at it.

"That guy has really messy handwriting," muttered Donald. "Okay, it says fly in innerspace and go through the glowing swirling vortex…What? !"

"Wow, that sounds simple," said Sora. Then he grabbed the steering wheel and started the gummi ship.

"Hey, wait a minute! We can't just go flying into a random vortex. There's no telling where we'll come out!"

"We kind of need to," said Goofy. He was right of course. Donald consented soon after this. Sora grinned and started looking for any swirling vortexes while shooting the Heartless ships. About half an hour later, Sora saw what seemed to fit the description.

"Well, here we go. Hold on tight." With that, Sora steered the ship towards and into the vortex. This was different from innerspace. There was a lot of turbulence, and something seemed to be repeatedly hitting the gummi ship everywhere, especially the wings. Then the gummi ship spontaneously turned upside-down, and started flying sideways. Two minutes later there was a flushing noise, and the gummi ship was ejected out of another vortex somehow rightside-up and flying straight again. The travelers shook their heads, groaning. Even Sora was shaken by that.

"My gosh. That was almost as bad as the time Rosso spiked the punch," muttered Sora.

"Let's not do that again," said Donald, looking a little green.

"What if we need to go to more worlds though?" asked Goofy. There was silence. Goofy had a point. They probably would have to do that again. Thankfully, not too long after coming out of the vortex, they came upon a new world. It was really sandy with what looked like some sort of palace on the top and a cave that looked oddly like a cat on the bottom. The small group quickly disembarked. They ended up in a city full of buildings that seemed to be made of sandstone.

"Great, a desert," muttered Donald.

"Do we have any water rations?" asked Sora. "If we do, we're gonna have to ration them."

While they were discussing this, there was another conversation going on in another part of the city. The woman that had been talking to Riku was talking to a man with a pointed face, red and black robes, a black turban with a red feather, and a staff shaped like a cobra. At this moment, the woman was speaking.

"…And the Keyhole?"

"The Heartless are searching for it now," said the man. "I'm certain we'll find it soon enough. So that just leaves…" He trailed off when he saw a red parrot and blue tail feathers flying over to them. It landed on the man's shoulder.

"Jafar! I've looked everywhere for Jasmine. She's disappeared like magic!" Seems this parrot was capable of talking. The man was not happy about the news.

"Tch. The girl is more trouble than she's worth."

"You said you had things under control," said the woman. She didn't change her tone, but it was obvious she was not pleased.

"Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in," said Jafar. He turned towards the woman. "But why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours when we find the keyhole." The woman gave him a rather pointed look.

"We need all seven princesses of heart to open the door. Any fewer is useless."

"Well, if the princess is that important, we'll find her." The man waved his hand, and several Heartless with turbans and curved swords appeared. "Find Jasmine and bring her to me at once." The Heartless went off. The woman looked unimpressed.

"Don't steep yourself in darkness too long." She turned to leave. "The Heartless consume the careless." The man laughed.

"You're concern is touching, but hardly necessary." Hiding behind a stall, listening to the conversation was a pretty young woman with dark hair, blue clothing, and tanned skin.

"_Why would they want me?"_

Back with the main characters, they finished talking about their preparations.

"We should be able to stay a week with that much water," said Sora.

"If we find more water, we can stay longer, right?" said Goofy.

"Yeah, but we'll have to do something about food immediately…" said Sora.

"We have some back on the gummi ship," said Donald, pointing over his shoulder.

"Great…Does anyone else think it's strange that we haven't seen any people since we got here?" said Sora, looking around the area they were in. The place was completely deserted. They went forward a few steps, and several heartless showed up. There were five Heartless about the size of Soldiers but with turbans and curved swords. There was also one that looked like a Large Body but with a turban and desert clothing. Sora took a quick look at them. _"Bandits and Fat_ _Bandits. Not too different from Soldiers and Large Bodies."_ "Don't attack the big one in the front." And with that the fight started. Donald shot a Fire at the Fat Bandit. It opened its mouth in a silent roar and fired a fireball at Donald. Fortunately, Donald was able to scramble out of the way. Sora had engaged in a swordfight with a couple of Bandits. They may have swords, but they didn't seem to be experts in swordplay. Sora was easily parrying and countering their attacks. Meanwhile, Goofy was trying to keep the other three Heartless from attacking anyone, which was rather difficult. Donald hit one of those with a Fire. Goofy sent Donald a grateful look.

"Thanks!"

"Don't mention it!" And then Donald used a Blizzard on the Fat Bandit and dodged a body slam. Meanwhile, Sora managed to disarm the two bandits he was fighting and smirked.

"You should've stuck to claws." Sora heard something whizzing towards him and leapt to the side. Two glowing swords flew through the air where he'd been standing. Sora raised an eyebrow. "Remote control swords?" The Bandits grabbed their swords and attacked him again. Goofy had managed to destroy one of the Bandits he was dealing with, leaving only one, but now he had to dodge the sword, which was flying around. He did notice that the Bandit seemed to be controlling this with his hands, so he threw his shield at the Heartless, aiming for the hands. It hit, the Heartless stumbled back, and the sword dropped to the ground. Goofy took advantage of this to get up close to the Bandit and bash its head in. Donald had also managed to finish off his opponent. Seems Fat Bandits had more health than Large Bodies. At this point, Sora disarmed his two opponents again, and beheaded them before they could try anything with their swords again.

"I guess the Heartless are here too," said Goofy.

"It explains why we haven't see anyone," said Sora. "They're either afraid to come out of their houses or have already fallen victim to the Heartless." Sora sighed. "Guess we'll need to find the Keyhole as well as information on Kairi and your king."

"Any idea where to start?" asked Donald.

"Let's see if we can find anyone out here," said Sora. "If we can't, we'll just have to go into some of the houses and ask anyone we find in there."

So, they walked through the mazes of the large town, making their way towards the palace in the center. There were a lot of Heartless to deal with too, and Sora summoned Simba a couple of times to get used to him. The three got a rather nasty surprise at one point.

"There's something up with that pot," said Sora, pointing at a group of pots. The anthros looked at the pots, each other, and back at the pot.

"Sora, it's a pot," said Donald.

"I know that, but for some reason it has an aura." Sora snuck closer and tapped it with a dagger. The pot suddenly grew four legs and tried to attack Sora. Sora quickly smashed it with the dagger before it could do anything, although he did see that it was called 'Pot Spider.' Donald went wide-eyed.

"It was a Heartless? !" he shouted.

"Gawrsh. Who'da thought?"

This seemed to explain why there was no one around outside. Anyone who did go out of their house would likely be ambushed by the camouflaged Heartless. After fighting several more Heartless, exploring several streets, and finding another set of Dalmatian puppies, they still hadn't found anyone.

"Okay, time to start checking houses," said Sora, going over to a house and opening a door.

"Is that legal?" asked Goofy. Sora was already looking through the house.

"I don't think it matters. There's nobody here," said the Tsviet. As it turned out, all the houses they checked were empty.

"The Heartless must've gotten everyone already," said Donald.

"This would be a lot easier if Ash were here," muttered Sora.

"Maybe we should check the roofs?" suggested Goofy.

"Might as well," said Sora. This was easy for him. He was acrobatic and could jump onto the roofs with no problem. It was a bit more difficult for the anthros. Plus, they still had to deal with any Heartless that showed up. This meant there was a lot of falling off. Finally, Donald found something.

"Found something!" It was a wooden pole going up into a building. It seemed as good a lead as any, so they climbed up it. It led to a small room with a hole in the wall, which gave a good view of the distant palace. There were also three more puppies sniffing around a block and a glowing green circle.

"More of them?" muttered Sora.

"At least this time there's a circle close by," said Donald. He started herding them towards the circle. Sora noticed that there seemed to be something under the block the puppies had been interested in. There was a bit of purple cloth with two tassels sticking out from under it. Thing is, it was twitching slightly and had a slight aura around it. Sora rammed the block and knocked it over. Goofy gave him an odd look.

"Sora?" Then the purple cloth, some sort of purple carpet with odd designs on it, flipped up, and started doing some stretching motions. Everyone had wide eyes.

"It's alive? !" shouted Donald.

"That's a first," admitted Sora.

"Hello!" said Goofy, with a wave. The carpet shot up in the air, flew around in the air a couple of times, and then flew out the hole. "Oh! I get it! It's a flying carpet!" Sora gave Goofy a dubious look.

"Those are real?" The carpet shot back in, circled around the three, and shot back out.

"I think it wants us to follow it," said Goofy. Not much else for them to do. They jumped out the window and followed the carpet through several streets, ignoring the Heartless, until they reached a side alley, where the carpet stopped. Sora narrowed his eyes.

"Who's there?"

"Hello?" The woman that had overheard Jafar and the woman talking earlier stood up from behind some boxes. She looked at them in surprise. "You're not from Agrabah…"

"No…Who are you?" asked Sora.

"I'm Jasmine. My father is the sultan of Agrabah." The three travelers blinked a couple of times. Goofy pointed at her.

"So…that would make you a princess." Jasmine nodded.

"Yes…But father was deposed by Jafar." When she said the same 'Jafar,' Jasmine got an angry look on her face and clenched her hands in anger. "Now Jafar rules the city. Him and his monsters!"

"Who's Jafar?" asked Goofy. It was probably something that a native would know, but the situation seemed dire enough to forego some tact.

Jasmine gave Goofy an odd look. "You don't know?" The three shook their heads. "He was the royal vizier, but he somehow gained…evil powers and then took control of Agrabah by force. I overheard him talking about a 'keyhole.'" The three stood straighter at the world, and Sora narrowed his eyes slightly. "He seems rather desperate about it. I assume this keyhole is important for some reason, although I don't know why. Right now, I have to stay in hiding from Jafar."

"That's not all of it," said Sora. "Jafar wouldn't just let the daughter of the former ruler escape. It's too risky. You might try to take revenge, or supporters of your family might try to put you back on the throne. There's something more." Jasmine nodded.

"Yes, I had help escaping. He was staying with me, but he left just a little while ago." She sighed and seemed to wrap her arms around herself. "I hope Aladdin's okay."

"Aladdin?" They all spun around, with the three travelers taking out their weapons, to look at the opening of the alley. Jafar was standing there with some Heartless. "Where might I find this street rat?" Jasmine glared at him.

"Jafar!"

"He's controlling the Heartless," muttered Sora. _"Like Clayton…"_ Jafar gave the Keyblader a withering look before returning his attention to Jasmine.

"Jasmine, allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess. These little rats…" He gestured towards the three travelers. "Won't do you see." Jasmine gave him a glare. Sora suddenly appeared behind one of the Bandit Heartless and beheaded it, shocking Jasmine. Sora looked right at her.

"Get out of here!" Jasmine didn't need to be told twice. She ran out of the alley with Sora preventing any Heartless from following her. Jafar made an odd growling noise. "The boy with the key…You're going to be trouble." At that, Jafar somehow teleported away, leaving the three travelers to deal with the Heartless he'd brought with him. There were only Bandits though. Sora cast a Fire on one and cut off its head. Donald cast Thunder while Goofy hit one over the head and into the ground. Sora blocked a couple of sword strikes from another Bandit before impaling it on the Keyblade. Goofy started spinning around again, cutting up any nearby Bandits. Then Donald finished off the remaining Bandits with another Thunder spell. Goofy grinned.

"Y'know, I think we're getting better at this," said Goofy.

"Yeah…" said Sora. That was unexpected. He was getting used to fighting enemies with these guys helping him. It felt…odd…

"We're gonna have to do something about that Jafar guy," said Donald. "It's dangerous for people to use the Heartless. They usually end up losing their hearts or cause their world to disappear."

"They cause their world to disappear?" Sora suddenly thought back to when Destiny Islands had disappeared. Riku hadn't seemed too bothered. _"Riku wouldn't…Would he? I'll ask next time I see him."_ "Jafar will probably go after Jasmine, but it sounds like he'll go after this Aladdin guy too. Thing is, it seems he'll probably kill Aladdin as soon as he finds him…Let's see if we can find Aladdin. We might run into Jasmine while we look for him."

As soon as Sora finished saying this, the carpet from before flew down from above and started circling them.

"This thing again?" asked Donald.

"How does it fly anyway?" asked Sora. "I get that it's probably magic, but it's strange, even for me."

"Hey, do you know where Aladdin is?" asked Goofy. The carpet landed for a second in a pseudo-standing position and made a nodding motion. "Could you take us to him?" The carpet nodded and went limp on the ground, almost looking like a normal carpet. Goofy got on and sat down. Donald shrugged and sat down on it too. Sora gave it a bit of a nervous look, but decided it couldn't be too bad and sat down on it. Then they flew off. The destination seemed to be far off so they took a nap. Well, Donald and Goofy did. Sora kept his eyes on the terrain while gripping onto the carpet.

A few hours later, the sun had set, and there was still no sign of anything of interest. Sora was getting tired of sitting on a flying carpet. Feeling very silly, he talked to the carpet. "How are we gonna even know when we get there? Everything looks the same from up here, and I have night vision…" He didn't get an answer, unless that tassel was waving in a gesture to make him look forward. Sora, not seeing anything to lose, looked forward and blinked at what he saw before turning around and shaking the two anthros. "Guys! Wake up! I think we're here!"

The two anthros sat up rubbing their eyes and yawning, until they saw what had caught Sora's attention. It was a large black…cave? It was shaped like a giant cat's head and had glowing yellow eyes and an orange glow coming from its mouth. There was a large sinkhole of sand in front of it. In the sinkhole was a young man with black hair, a weird red hat, baggy white pants, a brown sash, and a purple vest trying to avoid sinking into the hole. On his shoulder was a little brown monkey that had a hat and vest that matched his master's. Surrounding the hole were Bandits, Fat Bandits, Shadows, and Soldiers. The guy was trying to get out, but it was obvious the guy was screwed either way.

"I guess that's Aladdin," said Sora.

"He needs help!" shouted Donald.

With that, the three travelers jumped off the flying carpet and onto the sand below. The Heartless lost interest in the struggling young man and shifted their attention to the new arrivals. Sora ran forward and sliced a Soldier in two. A Shadow followed soon after. Goofy started spinning around like he'd been doing lately, hitting most of the Heartless. The Bandits were able to block the attack somewhat. Donald used Gravity, squishing any nearby Heartless. Sora took advantage of this to split a disoriented Bandit in two and impale a Soldier in the head. The Fat Bandits started spitting fireballs at the three. Goofy jumped in front of Donald and used his shield to block the attacks. Sora blocked any that came at him and let loose a barrage of Blizzards that destroyed one of the Fat Bandits. That was when Sora noticed something.

"They're spawning whenever we destroy them!" Then he had to parry a sword strike from a Bandit.

"Are you serious? !" said Donald. Goofy hit a Soldier away and looked around.

"You know, I think he's right." Goofy blocked a swipe from a Shadow, which was incinerated by Donald, and threw his shield at a Fat Bandit. The shield cut through the Heartless's neck before flying back to its owner. "There should be less by now."

"Then we need to get out of here!" shouted Donald. Sora growled slightly. He was not going to admit defeat to a bunch of mindless creature-puppets.

"I'm not leaving!" Fortunately for Sora, the young man in the sinkhole had managed to work himself out of it somewhat and pulled out a lamp, which he quickly rubbed.

"Genie! Get rid of these guys!" Now, doing something like this would usually be a waste of time and effort. Rubbing a lamp and shouting a command usually doesn't help you. This seemed to be an exception though. Blue smoke came out of the lamp, along with a large man. With Blue skin. And pointy ears. And a blue smoke tail instead of legs. The strange man grinned, cracked his fingers, and pointed at the Heartless.

"Wish number one, coming right up!" Then a clock appeared over the Heartless, making them freeze. Then the Heartless were frozen, shocked, crushed, burned, etc. until they were all gone, leaving only purple smoke behind. When the smoke cleared, the sinkhole was gone as well. The young man brushed sand off his legs, still holding the lamp. "Man, those guys were nasty! Good thing you had some help!"

"Yeah." The young man turned towards the three travelers. "Thanks a bunch. Those things were about to jump in when you guys showed up. What were you doing here though?" At that point, the carpet came in and landed in front of them in a pseudo-standing stance. The blue man seemed to recognize it.

"Hey! Carpet! My main man!" The carpet (Was it actually named 'Carpet?') and the blue man high-fived and knocked fists. Apparently, they were friends or something. Sora was looking at the blue man curiously.

"_He seems kind of like a summon, except he can stay in this realm indefinitely…and can talk."_ "Are you Aladdin?"

"Yeah, that's me," said the young man. He gestured towards the monkey on his shoulder. "And this is Abu."

"Hewwo." Well, that's what it seemed to sound like. Monkeys can't actually talk like a human. The blue man suddenly whizzed up behind Sora with a grin, making the young Tsviet jump slightly. That wasn't speed. That was some sort of teleportation!

"And I'm the Genie of the Lamp!" A blinking neon sign appeared behind him declaring this. The three travelers blinked while Aladdin and Abu stared at it curiously. Neon signs had not yet been invented here after all. "But you can just call me Genie!" Then he suddenly was over with Carpet with their arms slung over each others' shoulders. "And this is The Flying Carpet, but everyone just calls him 'Carpet.'" Sora continued to stare at the two. There was magic on Gaia, and he'd grown used to being around it, but none of it had been like this. These two were even stranger than the Heartless, in his opinion. Donald and Goofy were more used to stuff like this due to what their world was like though, and they decided to talk with Aladdin some more.

"So, how did you know my name?" asked Aladdin.

"Jasmine told us," explained Goofy. That got a reaction. Aladdin suddenly stiffened up with a scared look on his face.

"Jasmine? ! Is she okay? ! Jafar hasn't found her, has he? !" Aladdin was obviously worried about the Princess. Considering the circumstances, you couldn't really blame him.

"She ran when we distracted him," said Sora. He sighed. "There's a good chance he'll have found her by now though."

"Well, we better get back," said Aladdin, walking over to Carpet. "Who knows what Jafar's got planned for her?" They got on and started off for Agrabah, but Sora had some questions.

"Something's been bothering me. If you're so worried about Jasmine, what are you doing out here?"

Aladdin chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you see, I needed to get this." He held up the lamp.

"An old lamp?" Donald was clearly unimpressed.

"I saw Genie come out when you rubbed it," said Sora. _"It's like a summon materia."_ Sora turned towards Genie. "I guess that's why you're called 'Genie of the Lamp.'"

"Yep! I usually spend my time in there." Genie sighed. "It comes with the job. **PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!**" Genie suddenly became huge, stretching towards the sky, and giving an aura of being very dangerous. Sora had to squash the urge to attack him. Then Genie suddenly went back into the lamp with the top disappearing so you could see him crammed inside. "Itty bitty living space."

"That sucks," said Sora.

"Huh? How does it suck?" said Aladdin, looking very confused. Seems there are some very slight language differences.

"Why couldn't you bring Jasmine though?" asked Goofy. Aladdin sighed.

"The Cave of Wonders only lets certain people in. Everyone else gets eaten."

"Why do you need the lamp though?" asked Sora.

"You saw those monsters in Agrabah, right?" The three nodded. "Well, a guy can only handle so many of them. I thought I might be able to get some help from Genie. The only thing is…"

"You only get three wishes!" At this, Genie multiplied into three Genies, each holding up three fingers. "A-one-wish!" The one on the left disappeared. "A-two-wish!" The one on the right disappeared. "A-three-wish! Then I make like a banana and split!" He disappeared and reappeared next to Aladdin, who seemed to have gotten used to these antics. "Our lucky winner has already made his first wish-And what a doozey that was.-so that's two wishes left. So, Master, what'll it be?"

Aladdin seemed to think for a moment. "Well, normally, I'd wish to be a fabulously wealthy prince, but I think I better save that second wish, just in case."

"That still leaves one wish," pointed out Genie.

"Yeah, I'll think about it, maybe make myself a prince," said Aladdin. After this, Aladdin, Goofy, and Donald decided to sleep a little. They woke up a little while later, but weren't quite at Agrabah yet. Genie seemed to be enjoying himself. Sora had noticed this.

"You don't get out much, do you?"

"Comes with the job. Three wishes, and then it's back to my portable prison." Genie sighed. "I'm lucky to see the light every century or two…"

"…It must be dark in that lamp."

"Like you wouldn't believe! At least I can watch stuff past, present, or future." That explained the neon lights. "It's just not the same though…"

"To spend centuries at a time trapped in such a place…" _"It sounds worse than DEEPGROUND. I didn't think that was possible. I actually feel sorry for him…"_ The other three seemed to feel the same way.

"Hey, Genie, what if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp? What do you think?" Genie blinked in surprise.

"You'd really do that?" Aladdin nodded.

"Genie, it's a promise, after we help Jasmine." Genie got a face-splitting grin on his face at this bit of news.

They arrived in Agrabah not too long after this. They made their way to Aladdin's house, taking care of any Heartless that they ran into. This gave Sora a chance to observe Aladdin's fighting. Aladdin used a scimitar, but he didn't seem to have much experience using it. Aladdin was very good at dodging attacks though, making him difficult to hit. Sora figured that the lack of sword skills wouldn't be a problem if Aladdin wasn't going to be permanent. After going through several streets and climbing onto the roofs, they found themselves in the same place where they'd first found Carpet.

"Well, welcome to my home," said Aladdin, spreading his arms out. Then he dropped them and looked around in confusion. "Weird. What happened to those black and white things that were here?" Donald and Goofy shifted nervously. Sora just raised an eyebrow. "I'll worry about 'em later. For now, we gotta figure out what to do about Jafar."

"You already know that he's after Jasmine," said Sora. "But he's also looking for this world's Keyhole."

Aladdin cocked his head in confusion. "Keyhole? Is he looking for some kind of treasure?"

"Keyhole, eh?" Genie put his fist under his chin in a thinking position. "I could swear I've heard about that somewhere before." The three travelers perked up. If someone knew where the Keyhole was, it would save them a lot of trouble.

"Do you know where it is?" asked Goofy.

"Hmm…I know where it is…I just can't remember…It'll come to me in no time! Don't you worry! It's only been 200 years." The others sweatdropped. Only Genie would be able to say something like that so casually.

"Well, until you remember, we better go look for Jafar and Jasmine," said Sora. "We don't know what he wants Jasmine for. He could want to kill her…or worse…" Sora purposefully trailed off on the worse so the others could use their imaginations. Aladdin reacted immediately.

"Well, what are we waiting for? !" He ran over to the pole and slid down it like a fireman. Donald and Goofy weren't too far behind. Genie gave Sora a look.

"Couldn't you have been a bit nicer about that?" Sora shrugged.

"It got them moving, didn't it?" With that, he slid down the pole as well. Genie shook his head.

"That is one messed up kid." Then he flew after the others. At the base of the pole, the two humans and two anthromorphs were waiting.

"Why aren't we moving?" asked Sora.

"I asked Abu to see if he can see anything," explained Aladdin. At that moment, Abu came down from the roofs and landed on Aladdin's shoulder. "Well?" Abut made a couple of monkey noises and pointed in a direction. "Okay, we'll head to the palace gates until we run into something!" Aladdin immediately ran off in that direction, followed by the rest of the group. They had to deal with the regular Heartless attacks, but these were easily dealt with. All in all, they managed to reach the palace gates after a few minutes and saw Jafar holding Jasmine rather roughly. The attack group made themselves known immediately, but Genie stayed out of sight as Aladdin had to make a wish for him to do anything. Jafar sneered when he saw the rescue group.

"Setting your sights a little high aren't you boy? Back to your hole street rat. I will not allow you to bother the princess anymore." Jasmine looked down out of shame, although it was more likely caused by getting caught by Jafar than befriending Aladdin.

"I'm so sorry Aladdin."

"Surrender now, and your death will be swift," said Sora, pulling out his daggers. Donald and Goofy gave him surprised looks. Aladdin, Jasmine, and Jafar were unaffected. After all, the punishment for stealing an apple is having your hand cut off. Jafar still scoffed at Sora's threat.

"Are you really capable of that boy?" Aladdin took advantage of the situation to rub the lamp behind his breath and mutter a wish under his breath.

"I've killed before."

That was as far as that went. Genie appeared behind Jafar, pulled Jasmine out of his grip, and floated up out of reach. Sora was immediately suspicious when he saw that Jafar didn't look surprised at all.

"One wish left!" said Genie. "You're making this really easy, you know."

Jafar chuckled. "So sorry boy." He held his hand out, and his parrot landed on his hand with Genie's lamp in its claws. Aladdin's eyes widened and his hands went to the back of his sash where he'd been keeping the lamp. Jafar sent the young thief a sneer. "I'm afraid your wish has been denied."

Genie winced. Then looked down. "I'm sorry Al." Then he disappeared and Jasmine fell into a pot with a yelp. Then the pot sprouted legs, showing that it was a Pot Spider. Then several more Pot Spiders appeared, along with what appeared to be a blue bug head and rear end. The Pot Spiders lined up, the head went to one end, and the bottom went to the other end. Jafar smirked and made a mocking bow. "And now I bid you farewell." He then slammed the base of his staff into the ground and disappeared in a blast of red smoke. And then the odd Heatless attacked with a screech.

"_Okay. Pot Centipede. No obvious weakness. The head and tail can electrocute you. The head and tail share a life force, but the pots are all separate."_

"Aladdin!"

"Jasmine!" Aladdin rushed forward and tried to break the pot her shout seemed to be coming from. He only got in one hit before the head whipped around, grabbed him in its pincers and electrocuted him.

"Courage!" Simba appeared next to Sora. When he saw what was happening, he leapt at the head and started biting and clawing it. This got the Pot Centipede to drop Aladdin. Sora went over and dropped a potion next to him. "Don't rush in like that!" Then he sent some mana to Simba, who roared, sending the Pot Centipede back a few feet. "Simba! Keep an eye on Aladdin!"

"_Got it!"_

Sora ran forward and shattered one of the Pot Spiders that made up the body. Donald cast Thunder, hitting several of the pots in the middle. Goofy ran up from behind and hit the tail while avoiding the electrocuting stingers. Aladdin and Simba looked at each other for a second before Aladdin shrugged and ran forward. "Jasmine!"

"Aladdin!" Aladdin went for the pot this was coming from and tried to hit it, but after one hit, a couple of other Pot Spiders jumped in front of him and blocked him. Fortunately for Aladdin, Simba pounced on them before they could attack him. Aladdin quickly hit the two pots a few times and shattered them.

"Jasmine!" Nothing. Aladdin looked around wildly. "Jasmine!" Sora looked over from where he was attacking the head. He couldn't use magic or Simba would be dismissed sooner, so he was relying solely on physical attacks. It wasn't that difficult. The thing wasn't very fast and it was easy to dodge the attacks. Sora figured he could see what was happening.

"What is it?"

"Jasmine's gone!"

"Well, worry about it after we kill this thing! It's not gonna just let us go look for her!" Sora had a point so Aladdin started swiping at any pot that came close to him. He was caught off guard when one was shattered by an icicle.

"Sorry!" shouted Donald. Aladdin had accepted that Sora and Donald could use magic. He hadn't gotten used to it though. He just shrugged and went for the next pot. Goofy was continuing to attack the tail while dodging the electrical feelers. Donald cast a sudden Thunder spell that destroyed several of the Pot Spiders. Then several more Pot Spiders came in from the sidelines. "Oh, for the love of-"

"Don't worry!" shouted Sora. "It's probably like when we had to destroy that fruit in Deep Jungle."

"What does fruit have to do with this? !" shouted Aladdin. He was confused by this since he was completely ignorant of the fact that there were other worlds. Donald twitched.

"Sora!"

"Yeah, yeah, world order. We've already got the Heartless here! I really don't think it matters!" The head tried to take a bite out of him, but Sora went down, pushed himself under the head, and hit it into the air. "Attack now!" Goofy threw his shield, Donald shot a Fire spell, Sora threw the Keyblade, and Aladdin threw his scimitar at it. These four simultaneous attacks were too much, and the head, along with the tail, exploded in a blast of dark smoke and a loud screech. The Pot Spiders there fell over and started dissolving into dust.

"Okay, it's dead. Now let's go find Jasmine!" said Aladdin.

"Hold on," said Sora. "We have no idea where they went. They could be in the city, but they might have left as well."

"Well, what are we supposed to do then? !"

"Can you think of where Jafar might take her?" asked Sora. Aladdin thought for a second before his eyes widened.

"The Cave of Wonders! Jafar was the one who told me about it." This got him suspicious looks from Sora and Donald and a confused one from Goofy. "I was in the palace dungeon and he was disguised as an old guy. I had no idea who he was!"

"I guess we better go find Carpet then," said Goofy. Sora groaned. He was not looking forward to that.

After finding Carpet outside the entrance to the city, they headed for the Cave of Wonders again.

"Those…things did something to the cave last time I was there. I don't think it's stable, but that means you guys should be able to get in."

"Didn't you say anyone else who went in besides you would get eaten?" asked Sora.

"Well…" Aladdin rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah, but considering how unstable the cave was becoming when we were getting out of there, I think you can get in as long as you're with me."

"Think?"

"I don't know much about magic…If it starts to collapse, you can probably get out of there before anything happens to you." That didn't do much to raise their confidence.

"How much longer until we get there?" muttered Sora.

"Last time, we didn't get there until it was dark," pointed out Goofy. Sora groaned and let his head fall onto his knees. This world sucked.

After flying long enough that it had gotten dark, they group finally reached the Cave of Wonders. It looked the same, sand in the shape of a large cat's head, probably a tiger, with yellow eyes. There was also a horde of Heartless around it. At least there wasn't a sinkhole this time.

"More Heartless?" muttered Donald.

"Is that what they're called?" asked Aladdin. "I'm pretty sure they're what caused the cave to go berserk."

"They'll probably spawn continuously like last time," said Sora. He took a closer look at the scene, and noticed something. "The cave's got an aura!"

"Huh?" Remember, Aladdin doesn't even know the bare minimum.

"Just go for the eyes. That seems to be the only vulnerable part," instructed Sora. "Ignore the Heartless. Don't try to attack them unless you need to defend yourself." Then he jumped off the carpet.

"Is Sora the son of a soldier or something?" asked Aladdin. "He seems really into this."

"He's always like that," said Donald. Goofy seemed to be in thought though.

"You know, we never did ask Sora about his family."

"Shouldn't we be helping him?" said Aladdin, watching Sora cast a Gravity Spell on several nearby Heartless. Then Sora turned and gave the people on the carpet a look that made them quickly jump off to join him.

"What took ya?" said Sora, looking rather annoyed as he cleaved an Air Soldier in two.

"Uh, nothing," said Donald, casting a Thunder spell on some nearby Heartless. Sora summoned Simba, who went over to Aladdin again. Aladdin was busy slashing any Heartless that got close to him.

"Remember, we need to get over to the cave!" shouted Sora. Fortunately, it was very easy to get through the Heartless and over to the cave. Then it got complicated. The cave suddenly pulled its head back, and let out a large stream of fire. They didn't dodge it though. That's right, not even Sora. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had been shocked enough by the cave suddenly moving that they didn't move soon enough. Well, you can't blame them. Most caves don't move. Aladdin had known about this, but his back had been to the cave. The damage done was enough that Simba automatically dismissed himself. Donald quickly cast a Cure on everyone. Sora decided there was a simple way to take care of this problem. He grabbed Donald and Goofy and tossed them onto the cave's head. Aladdin only had enough time to blink before he was grabbed by the teen, who jumped just as the cave brought its head down where they had been. Sora landed on the head as it came up and put Aladdin down. Aladdin was understandably shaken.

"What was that about? !"

"It can't bite or burn us up here, and we can get to the eyes," explained Sora, pointing at the eyes.

"Good idea," said Donald. Then the eyes started emitting laser orbs that went for the fighters. Thankfully, it wasn't that difficult to deal with them. Just swatting them with a weapon was enough to knock the orbs away. The real problem was dealing with the Air Soldiers and the Heartless that managed to climb up to their position. Donald and Goofy took care of the Heartless while Aladdin and Sora started bashing the eyes. You think this sounds easy? It's not. Donald, or Goofy, or both were regularly knocked off by the Heartless and had to climb back up. Until they did, Sora would take care of any Heartless that got too close. Aladdin would've helped, but Sora almost always managed to take care of the Heartless before they got too close. The only things that managed to get past Sora were Shadows, since they could slip past in the shadows. They all also had to deal with the laser orbs continuously. As stated earlier, it wasn't difficult to knock them away, but sometimes one of the fighters would miss an orb and get hit. All in all, it was more a battle of endurance than anything else. After hitting at the eyes for around 10 minutes, the eye Sora was attacking made a cracking sound and the light died away to the black of the rest of the cave. Aladdin's was still glowing. Sora quickly went over to help him, and a few seconds later, this eye darkened as well. This caused the Heartless to start disappearing. There was a collective sigh of relief.

"Man, I'm glad that's over with," said Aladdin.

"Hey, Sora, who is your dad?" asked Goofy. Sora instantly tensed up and turned with an unreadable look on his face and a dark but unreadable aura around him.

"I'm adopted." No one really had the guts to ask anymore about him. Sora quickly walked into the cave.

"Nice going Goofy!" shouted Donald. "What'd you do that for? !"

"Well, Aladdin has a point," said Goofy. "How does Sora know so much about fighting?"

"It's none of our business!"

"Can we go in already?" asked Aladdin. "I wanna get in, get Jasmine and Genie, and get out."

The three walked down into the cave cautiously. Sora was crouched, looking at some puppies, and seemed much calmer.

"It's more of those black and white things," said Aladdin.

"They're called Dalmatians," said Sora, not turning. "They're a type of dog, but these are still puppies."

"Dogs? I've heard about those before. So that's what they look like," muttered Aladdin. They must not have a lot of domesticated dogs in Agrabah. "They weren't here before. How'd they get here?" Sora shrugged and stood up.

"Aladdin, you lead the way. Donald, you do something about those puppies." Lucky for the puppies, a green circle was nearby. Donald would catch up in no time. The other three went on ahead.

"There are some traps you need to look out for," explained Aladdin. "There are some statues that shoot out darts, some more that shoot out pressurized air that will knock you down into that chasm, some that shoot flames, and there are some tracks with huge boulders running along them. They're not too difficult to avoid though." That was when Donald reappeared. Aladdin blinked a couple of times. "How'd you take care of those poppies-"

"Puppies."

"Right, puppies. How'd you take care of them so fast?"

"Teleportation spell." Well, Aladdin bought it at least. "What'd I miss?"

"You need to avoid the statues 'cause they shoot stuff out and there are some boulders," said Sora.

"What about Heartless?"

"They weren't here last time," said Aladdin. "If Jafar's here though…" Sora nodded.

"Right, we'll keep our guards up." And so Aladdin led the way through the cave. There were Heartless of course, mainly Bandits, Fat Bandits, Shadows, and Air Soldiers. Fighting Heartless was a bit trickier since they had to deal with the traps, but Aladdin and Sora were able to keep Donald and Goofy from going into the chasm, which was practically a minor miracle.

"Wow, no one fell this time," said Goofy. Aladdin gave him a weird look.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Last time we did something like this, Donald and Goofy kept falling down, especially Goofy," explained Sora.

"Yeah, swinging on those vines was really tricky," said Goofy before getting shushed by Donald.

"Vines?"

"Long story," said Sora. For once, he didn't say anything that might compromise the world order. Good for him. "Where next?"

"Next is the treasure room, and after that is…Oh…" Why the 'Oh?' The room they were in lived up to its name. There were piles of gold coins and other treasures all over the room, along with another green circle and another set of three puppies. There was also a large stone column blocking what looked to be the only other way out of the room. "That wasn't there before." Sora walked over to the column and rapped the column. It felt very solid.

"_Well, that just proves that it can't be moved. Trying to break it with spells may just cause it to fall toward us or collapse into rubble in front of the exit."_ Sora looked up at the ceiling. Nothing special there. Sora looked down. _"Hey, it looks like this is coming up out of a hole."_

"Where do these come from?" asked Aladdin, staring at the Dalmatians. Abu had grabbed a coin, and one of the puppies had also grabbed the coin in its mouth. They were now having a tug-a-war, which would've looked cute to anyone who liked puppies and/or small animals.

"They just got lost. Don't worry about it," said Donald. He was waiting for Aladdin to at least go to another part of the room. Then he could send the puppies to the ship. Sora walked back over to them.

"I think that column is coming in here from down below," explained Sora. "We should be able to get rid of it if we take it out at a lower point, but we'll have to go to a lower level of the cave."

"That's not too difficult," said Aladdin. "We'll just jump off a cliff."

"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Goofy.

"A little, but it's mostly water down there." So they went back to the last room and jumped off the cliff, landing in some very cold water in a very dark cavern.

"Where to now?" asked Sora.

"Hard to say. It's like a maze down here," explained Aladdin. "This is actually where I found Genie's lamp. I should be able to get us there at least. Other than that, we'll have to keep looking around." Fortunately, they could climb up on some rock platforms in the water. Sora noticed some pieces of paper under a rock and pulled them out. He raised an eyebrow at what they said, rolled them up, and slipped them into his vest pocket. There were no other notable items found, although they did find a few potions and synthesis materials. On the bright side, there didn't seem to be any Heartless down here, so it was fairly easy to get around. After some wandering around, they came to a large room with a stone column.

"This is where I found Genie's lamp, but that column wasn't here before," explained Aladdin. Sora went up and looked the column over.

"This thing is made of a bunch of smaller, circular stones. If we knock them out one-by-one, it'll get shorter. If it's connected to the column in the treasure room, we should be able to get by. Donald, give me a hand." The two stepped back, pointed the Morning Star and Keyblade at the column, and hit it with two Fire spells simultaneously. It pushed the bottom block about half of the way out. Another hit pushed it all the way out, and the rest fell down to take up the space.

"Those two are pretty powerful magicians," said Aladdin as the two continued to demolish the column.

"Yep, Donald's been learning magic for most of his life," said Goofy.

"What about Sora?"

"Ya know, I don't really know. Donald's been showing him how to use magic, but Sora mentioned something about magic and materia before."

"Materia? What's that?" Goofy just shrugged. It's probably something from Sora's world.

"Okay, the rest of this column is just solid stone. We won't be able to do anything more," said Sora.

"How are we supposed to get back up there?" muttered Donald, waving his staff up above him. He and Goofy looked over at Sora.

"I can't jump that high."

"There are some stairs around here somewhere. We just have to find them." Thank you Aladdin. So, they swam around for a while and managed to find the stairs. The only problem was that they were back near the entrance of the cave and had to work their way to the back while fighting Heartless and avoiding traps. Eventually, they made it back to the treasure room, which no longer had the column blocking the other exit. Now, what has Jafar been doing this whole time?

Jafar, Genie and Jasmine were in the chamber behind the treasure room. Jasmine was leaning against a wall, unconscious, and Genie looked rather unhappy.

"My first wish, Genie! Show me the Keyhole!"

Genie frowned, but snapped his fingers, causing the wall in front of them to crack and crumble. Behind it was the Keyhole.

"Excellent."

"So you've found the Keyhole?" Jafar turned to see the woman he'd been talking to before.

"Come to retrieve your princess?"

"That boy is here."

"What? That boy is more persistent than I thought. We don't even have anything of interest to him."

"The Keyblader has a rather…unique philosophy. I doubt we will be able to understand all of his motives."

"Why not explain the situation to Riku? Doing so may actually prove useful to our-" Jafar was cut off by a dagger flying straight for his face. Lucky for him, the woman stopped it about an inch from his face with her magic. The two looked at the group at the entrance to the room. Aladdin was focusing on Jafar, Donald and Goofy were looking at both of them, and Sora was looking at the woman with narrowed eyes.

"Are you Maleficient?" At Sora's question, the woman disappeared, causing the dagger to drop to the floor. "Tch, figures."

"Jafar! Let Jasmine go!" shouted Aladdin. Jafar sneered.

"Not a chance. You see, she's a princess, one of seven who hold the key to opening the door." Sora frowned.

"What sort of door are you talking about?"

"You fools won't live long enough to find out. Genie! My second wish: Crush them!" Aladdin's eyes widened.

"Genie! No!"

Genie sighed. "Sorry Al, the one with the lamp calls the shots. I don't have a choice." Jafar laughed and floated up and away from the group. Sora pulled out his other dagger, ran forward, and grabbed the dagger he had thrown before. Jafar raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to use those toys?" Sora gave him a dangerous grin.

"I don't need the Keyblade to take care of you." Then Sora jumped straight at Jafar, catching the sorcerer by surprise.

"Should we help him?" asked Aladdin. Goofy and Donald shrugged. Then Genie swung his fists at them.

Jafar grit his teeth. Sora was very fast. This normally wouldn't matter since Jafar can levitate, but Sora was capable of jumping high enough to attack him. Jafar was firing his magic at Sora, but the Keyblader was managing to dodge most of them.

"I'm sorry!" Oh yeah, and Genie seemed to be trying to do his job as badly as possible. Aladdin and Donald were actually able to get away from Genie to help Sora with Jafar. Donald's magic was not hampered by levitation and was capable of hitting him. Aladdin couldn't jump as high as Sora, but he was throwing his sword at Jafar. Goofy had decided to stay back and keep Genie from getting near the rest, which wasn't that difficult since Genie wasn't actually trying. Then Sora slashed Jafar across the abdomen. Yeah, this definitely wasn't going to work. Jafar decided to try something else.

"Genie! My final wish! I want you to make me an all-powerful genie!" Genie blinked but raised his hand and hit Jafar with some red magic. The resulting transformation caused the floor to shatter, causing the group to fall down into the area below, which was full of lava. Fortunately, there was a large stone platform that they landed on. Then genie Jafar came floating down from above. He was big, red, and had gotten a lot more muscular.

"Great…somehow this seems to be beyond us," said Sora.

"The lamp!" Aladdin pointed at the red bird, which was holding a black lamp in its talons. "Get his lamp!"

"_Right, we can suck him into his lamp."_ Sora glanced at Jafar. _"Maybe I should use the Keyblade."_ He quickly put away his daggers and pulled out the Keyblade. Donald fanned himself.

"It's way too hot!" Then he cast Aero on everyone. It did help, but they were in a pit full of lava so it didn't do much. Then Jafar threw a huge rock at them, causing everyone to scatter. Then it was time to go for the weird parrot. Donald hit it with a Fire spell.

"Hey! Watch it!" Looked like long range attacks worked best. Sora took a moment to concentrate as smoke started to swirl around him. Then he transformed into his Wisdom Drive and shot several magic blasts at the bird. The bird recognized the threat and brought the lamp up in front of him to avoid getting killed. Jafar didn't seem to like this.

"Iago!" Said parrot squawked and quickly flew away while Sora rolled away from a large blast of magic Jafar sent towards him.

"Since when can Sora do that?" asked Aladdin.

"Oh, he's been able to do it for a while," said Goofy. "I think he just needs the right motivation to use it."

"Then why didn't he use it when Jafar kidnapped Jasmine? !"

"Less talking, more fighting!" shouted Donald, using a Gravity spell to knock Iago to the ground. Sora hit Iago with a Fire spell and felt an odd clicking sound in his mind.

"_What the?"_ Sora cast another Fire spell, which was much more powerful. "Was that Fira?" Iago shot up into the air.

"Enough with the fire already!" Then he started flying away as Jafar threw more rocks at everyone. Aladdin managed to land a hit on Iago though.

"Blizzard!" Sora felt that clicking again. "Freeze!" This spell was also upgraded. "Weird…" The spells had put a lot of frost on Iago's wings. He probably wouldn't be able to stay airborne much longer. Then Goofy's shield came flying out of nowhere and hit Iago. This was the last straw. Iago fell to the ground unconscious with the lamp next to him.

"No!" Jafar pulled back his hand, which was starting to glow with magic, but Aladdin grabbed the lamp and held it up before the magic could be used. The effect was instant. The lamp started glowing and sucking in Jafar, starting at the tail. Jafar let out an angry shout as he was sucked into the lamp in less than 5 seconds. Then Sora grabbed the lamp and threw it off the platform and into the lava.

"That takes care of that," said Sora, changing back. He paused, noticing some papers floating down from somewhere. Frowning, he grabbed them, but was not able to take a look at them.

"You did it!" Everyone jumped. When did Genie get here? He hugged all of them in a bone-crushing hug. "I'm so happy! I couldn't stand having to fight you guys!" Aladdin smiled.

"We're happy to see you too, but-"

Donald cut him off. "You're crushing us! Let go!" Up above, Jasmine, who had regained consciousness, was watching with a smile.

"They did it!" Then a black gloved hand covered her mouth and another arm went around her and pulled her back before she could scream. A moment later, everyone came up out of the lava pit. They all blinked, but Aladdin was the one who voiced what they were thinking.

"Where's Jasmine?" She seemed to have disappeared somehow. Then the Keyhole started to glow. Sora held up the Keyblade, and the beam shot out of the tip and into the Keyhole. As soon as the locking sound was heard, the beam disappeared, and a wall reappeared in front of the Keyhole. Then the Cave started to shake.

"We better get out of here!" shouted Goofy. Lucky for them, Carpet came zooming in at that moment.

"But what about Jasmine? !"

"We can't do anything for her if we're dead!" shouted Sora. This didn't seem to do any good so Sora had to drag him onto Carpet. Then they went flying off and saw just what was going on with the cave. Rocks were falling from the ceiling, and the ground was getting so hot that it was turning into lava and occasionally shooting up like a geyser. Carpet had to dodge all of these threats. There were a couple of close calls, but Carpet was able to avoid all of them and get them out of the cave, and not a moment too soon. As soon as they came shooting out, the cave collapsed into a mound of sand. For a second, they just floated there, looking at where the cave had been.

"I hope Jasmine wasn't in there," said Aladdin.

"I doubt it. I didn't feel any other auras while we were leaving," said Sora.

"…What's going on?" Aladdin gave the three travelers a look. "I know you guys know something." Sora took a moment to look at Aladdin. He was obviously upset and looked like he might have a breakdown if something wasn't done.

"Donald, I'm telling him. I don't think the world order can be damaged any more here," said Sora.

"You can't do that!"

"I dunno…" Donald looked at Goofy in surprise. "I think we should tell Aladdin." Donald looked from Aladdin, to Sora, to Goofy, to Genie.

"Fine." So the whole ride back to Agrabah was spent explaining everything that was going on to Aladdin. It took a while. They didn't finish explaining until after they got back to Agrabah and went to Aladdin's house.

"It sounds like they needed Jasmine for something," said Sora. "That means she's probably alive. They just took her somewhere else, probably their base."

"So, what you're saying is that Jasmine's no longer anywhere on this world?" asked Aladdin. The three travelers nodded. Aladdin looked down at his feet for a moment before nodding and standing up from his sitting position. "Sora, let's go find her." Sora didn't answer. Instead, he looked at Donald who sighed.

"We can't take him with us." This was not what Aladdin wanted to hear.

"Why not? !"

"Gosh, I sure wish we could, but that would be muh-mudd-" Donald sighed and decided to help the knight out.

"Meddling."

"And that's against the rules." Genie decided to intervene.

"Earth to Al. You still have one wish left. Just say the word, and I'll have Jasmine back here for you, lickety split." Aladdin looked at Genie, the lamp, and back again.

"I…I wish…" Genie raised his hands. "…for your freedom." Everyone was caught off guard by this. Genie's cuffs fell off and his tail suddenly turned into a normal pair of legs. Genie stared at his arms and then at Aladdin, who just shrugged. "A deal's a deal. You're your own master now."

"Al…"

Elsewhere, the fight with Jafar was being discussed by the familiar villains. Hades was watching the ball while leaning against the wall. What was so surprising was that Riku was also there. Hades snorted when he saw the part where Jafar got sucked into his lamp. "That smarmy vizier could've had them…If someone had stuck around to give him a hand." He gave Riku a pointed look. Riku shrugged carelessly.

"Hey, I did my part. I brought the princess didn't I?"

"Jafar was beyond help." Maleficient stepped in from the shadows, also observing the ball. "Consumed by his own hatred." She turned to look at Hades. "One should beware of letting it burn too fiercely." Hades waved his hands.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, lighten up. I'm as cool as they come, okay?" Then he grinned and pointed at Riku. "By the way kid, have we got something special for you." Riku raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?"

"We had a deal, yes?" Riku turned his attention to Maleficient. "You help us, and we grant you your wish…" She waved her hand over an unseen object and a hologram of an unconscious Kairi appeared in the air. Riku's eyes widened.

"Kairi!"

"Go to her. Your vessel is waiting." At Maleficient's words, a man wearing fancy red clothing, including a feathered hat, long black hair, a thin moustache, and a hook in place of one of his hands stepped out of the shadows grinning.

"Just remember; this is no pleasure cruise. It won't be a pleasant voyage." Riku frowned at the hook-handed man and turned his attention back to Maleficient.

"Why are you doing all this for me? What's the catch?" Maleficient smiled at him.

"Catch? What's the catch? Silly boy. You're like a son to me. I only want you to be happy." As she finished speaking, she touched Riku's face, but he pushed her hand away.

"I seriously doubt that." Maleficient gave him a rather cool look.

"Believe what you wish. But lest we forget, I kept my end of the bargain." Riku just calmly turned to follow the red-clothed man.

Back in Agrabah, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin were standing in front of the gates of Agrabah. Genie had already left. "Hey, Sora, here." Aladdin handed Sora a charm that looked like Genie's lamp that had a golden chain. Sora looked at it in surprise.

"Where'd you get this?" Aladdin chuckled.

"It's funny. When we got back from the cave, I just found it in my hand. I don't know where it came from. It looks like the thing on your key." Sora nodded and took the Keyblade off his back. He quickly took off the Jungle King charm, put it on the chain around his arm, and put the new one on the Keyblade. With a flash of light, the Keyblade changed form again. The first thing that Sora noticed was that the shaft was much shorter now. The Keyblade also seemed to be made almost completely of gold. The hand guards were curved a bit like the lamp's handle, and the key part was a rather odd shape that Sora couldn't really place, but he knew what to call the Keyblade.

"Three wishes. It's kind of short. I'll have to try it out before I know if it's well-suited for me."

"You guys are leaving now, huh?" said Aladdin.

"Yeah, we need to find the king," said Donald.

"And Sora's friends," pointed out Goofy.

"Do you think you could show me this ship of yours?" Sora raised an eyebrow at Aladdin's question. "I'm just curious what it looks like. It's not every day that a ship used to go to other worlds shows up."

"I don't think it's a problem, do you?" said Sora.

"I guess not," said Donald. "But don't touch anything!"

"Don't worry. I'll be good." They went to where they had hidden the gummi ship, in a small bit of vegetation off to the side of the gates. Aladdin looked it over in disbelief. "This is how you get around? It looks like it's made of fancy building blocks."

"Yeah, weird, isn't it?" said Sora. "We don't have anything like this in my world either."

"I guess we should leave now," said Goofy.

"Well, it was nice meeting you guys," said Aladdin. "Drop by sometime. We can go treasure hunting."

"Sure thing," said Sora. The three off-worlders climbed into the gummi ship and started the engines. As the ship rose into the air, they turned to see Aladdin still watching them. "Let's go." The engines flared, and they shot off into innerspace. As soon as they were away from Agrabah, Sora took some of the papers out of his pockets. "Can you guys put the ship on stand-by? I wanna look at these papers. I think Jafar dropped them. It says 'Ansem's Report #1.'" That got their attention. They quickly slowed the engine down to a stand-still.

"What's it say?" asked Donald. Sora returned his attention to the papers.

"'Much of my life has been dedicated to pursuit of knowledge. That knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that. I am blessed with people's smiles and respect.

"' But though I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand. I believe darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart. I have witnessed it many times.

"'Darkness...

"'Darkness of the heart.

"'How is it born? How does it come to affect us so? As ruler of this world, I must find the answers.

"'I must find them before the world is lost to those taken by the darkness." The three were silent as they digested this. Then Donald sighed.

"That didn't tell us anything."

"Maybe if we find some more reports, we can learn something," said Goofy. Sora shrugged. There wasn't enough in the report for him to have a definitive opinion.

"Let's just go to the next world. Maybe we can find something there."

-**end chapter**-

That's that. You might think it's a bit odd that Aladdin wasn't bothered by how violent Sora was or when he talked about people getting killed, but if the penalty for stealing an apple is getting your hand cut off, I'm sure Aladdin's seen worse.

Sora did not get Genie as a summon. There is a very good reason for this which will be revealed at the beginning of the next chapter, which will be Monstro. And I apologize to anyone who wanted to see more of Abu, but I think Abu would prefer to avoid the fights the group gets into.

By the way, I like both Pokémon and Digimon. I have nothing against either of them. I just thought it would be fitting for Ash to end up there. And now for the omake!

**Omake: What about the Rest? Part VIII**

"Boo!" The goggle-wearing boy and blue lizard thing jumped nearly a foot in the air. Ash laughed and turned visible.

"Huh, another grown-up?"

"Nope! I'm a ghost!"

"Seriously? !"

"Davis, I don't think we can have ghosts in the Digital World."

"Really?" The blue lizard nodded. Davis turned back to look at Ash. "Nice try, but you can't fool us!" Ash grinned and stuck his hand into his head. Davis and the lizard's eyes widened. "Okay, then again, uh, Veemon, can Digimon do anything about ghosts?

"I don't think so." Ash frowned.

"This isn't freaking you out? Have you seen a ghost before?" Both nodded. Ash sighed. "Great. Guess I'll have to use the big guns." Then he pulled his rifle out from where he'd hidden it, wherever that was.

"Hey! That's a real gun!" shouted Davis. Ash rolled his eyes.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious."

"What are you gonna do with that?" asked Veemon. Ash gave them a crazy grin, pointed the gun at them, and fired. It clipped Davis's ear. Davis brought his hand to his ear, brought it in front of his face, and stared. Then he exchanged looks with Veemon. The two then turned tail and ran out of there. Ash laughed and gave chase. They weren't nearly fast enough to outrun a Tsviet.


	12. Chapter 12

I'm getting more reviews now for some reason. That makes me so happy! There was a question in an unsigned review that I wanted to respond to, but I couldn't since it was unsigned! I'd answer it in the note, but I don't want to give anything away. Oh well, not much that can be done about it. I recently read some of the Xxxholic chapters online. Watanuki lost his glasses and never replaced them. He has glasses in this story though. I guess I'll have to do an explanation for that eventually, but not right now.

This is chapter 12, Monstro. From this chapter onwards, there will be a small change to the plot, nothing too major. Think of it as a way to make up for how I'm not getting very detailed in this chapter. It's because of Monstro. Seriously, that whale has a maze in his gut. I could not stand that level, and I'm not going to attempt writing it out. I still don't own anything.

**-line break-**

Our group of adventurers were once more flying through innerspace, waiting for another world to appear. Nothing much was happening.

"We're not running into very many ships," mused Sora. "Do the Heartless have a weaker hold in this area?" Donald and Goofy shrugged.

"It's weird, but it's good. One less thing for us to worry about," said Donald. As soon as he said this, something huge suddenly went flying past their ship, causing their eyes to widen. "What was that? !" The thing turned around, allowing them to see what it was. Their eyes widened in shock.

"It's a giant whale!" At that, Jiminy jumped the pocket on Sora's jacket where he had been. It only took one second for him to identify the whale.

"It's Monstro! A whale of a whale! And vicious besides!" And then Monstro started swimming towards them with his mouth wide open.

"Sora! Get us out of here!" shouted Donald. He didn't really need to. Sora had started piloting the ship away as soon as he realized what Monstro was trying to do, but the gummi ship just wasn't going fast enough.

"We're not gonna make it! Brace for impact!" And then they were in the whale's mouth, and the gummi ship was being tossed almost as badly as when they went through the vortex.

"_C'mon Riku! It's really weird!" It was a bright, sunny day on Destiny Islands, and little Sora was trying to show little Riku something._

"_It's just a hole. What's the big deal?"_

"_That's what I thought. Then I heard this weird breathing noise. I thought it might be a monster so I went to check it out-"_

"_You know, most people would avoid monsters," said Riku._

"_Yeah, but I was bored, and I thought it would be fun to fight one. Fighting the same people can get old after a while." Riku smirked._

"_Especially when you never win."_

"_Neither do you!" shouted Sora indignantly. "Anyway, I went in to check it out, and there wasn't a monster, but there was a huge cave and a door."_

"_A door?"_

"_Yeah, c'mon, I'll show you." Sora quickly knelt down and crawled through the hole. Since Sora didn't seem to have any problem, Riku shrugged and followed him through. Sora grinned as Riku came in. The cave was actually nicely lit because of a hole in the ceiling. Sora pointed at the hole. "Wind comes rushing in through that hole. That's what the breathing sound is." Sora then pointed at a plain looking brown door at the very back of the cave. "And that's the door."_

"_Are you sure it's a door?"_

"_What else could it be? It sure is weird though. There's no keyhole or lock. Not even a doorknob. I tried to see if I could open it, but I couldn't."_

"_So it's just a door? And it doesn't even open?"_

"_Pretty much."_

_Riku sighed. "Man, nothing ever happens here. It's so boring."_

"_It's not so bad. This is a pretty good place to hide. The entrance is hard to see."_

"_Hey, Sora."_

"_Hm?"_

"_When we grow up, let's get off this island! We'll go on real adventures, not kid games!"_

"_Sure, but what should we do now? I don't want to go home quite yet." Sora thought for a second before lighting up. "Let's go visit that new girl at the mayor's house! I'll race ya!" With that, Sora ran to the crawl space and crawled out of the cave. Riku also walked towards the exit, but stopped and looked back. There, in the center of the door, was a large, gold-lined keyhole._

*Splash!*

Sora blinked. He was on his back, looking at a very fleshy ceiling. _"Huh, I remember that. It was when Riku and I found the Secret Spot right before we met Kairi. What was with that bit at the end though?"_ Then Donald loomed in Sora's vision.

"Sora!" Sora pushed himself into a sitting position, only to find his vision swimming. That couldn't be good. He groaned and put a hand to his forehead, feeling blood. A chest fell, almost hitting him. Sora noted that Goofy was standing above him and Donald, holding his shield up, probably to keep anything from hitting them.

"Sora! Are you okay?"

"I think so. What happened?"

"I think that big ol' whale Monstro went and swallowed us," explained Goofy. Donald pointed behind them to the gummi ship.

"And you went flying through the windshield." That explained why he felt like crap. "You're lucky you're not hurt too badly. I think I can fix most of it with a Cure."

"Good thing I'm a Tsviet."

"Hey, that weird stripey cat called you that too. What's it mean anyway?" asked Goofy. Whoops, Sora didn't mean to say that part out loud.

"It's just a title that some people have in my world."

"Ow! Where's this stuff coming from!" The three tensed up. They turned and saw Aladdin holding his hands over his head and Abu hiding under his vest.

"Aladdin? !" Aladdin looked over, grinned, and waved.

"Hi guys. Ow!" This time a hi-potion hit him in the head. "Who's up there? !"

"It's just me," said a young-sounding voice. Then a black-haired boy looked out over the pile of stuff he was on.

"Oh, it's just a little wooden boy," said Donald. Then everyone blinked as they digested this. "Little wooden boy? !" Jiminy jumped onto Sora's head.

"Pinocchio!" Aladdin blinked.

"Is that a talking bug?" By this time, Pinocchio was walking away on some platforms while holding onto a gummi block. Jiminy looked down at Sora, waving his umbrella towards Pinocchio. "We gotta follow him!"

"Hold on." Sora turned towards Aladdin. "How'd you get here?"

"I jumped onto your ship when you started to leave."

"How'd you get inside? There's only one entrance, and we would've seen you come in," said Donald. This question made Aladdin grin sheepishly.

"Actually, I couldn't figure out how to get in so I just held on. That was really difficult when you flew away from Agrabah. It was a bit easier when you were just flying around in that weird color place."

"You can breathe in innerspace?" That surprised Sora. He'd think that would be impossible because it seemed similar to outer space. There might still be weird side effects though. Sora looked at Donald. "Will that cause any problems?"

"Yeah, do you know how much this is going to damage the world order? !" Yep, he's angry.

"I think he meant Aladdin," said Goofy.

Aladdin held up his hands. "Some of the skin came off my hands when you started flying. I think a potion or that healing spell will fix it." Donald muttered and quickly cast a Cure on the thief and Sora.

"Don't forget Pinnoch!" shouted Jiminy. "We need to go find him!"

It wasn't that difficult. There was a little wooden boat in sight, and Pinocchio was standing on it with an old man with similar clothes, a white and black cat, and a goldfish in a fish bowl. The old man was looking at the gummi block.

"What have you got there Pinocchio?"

"With this, we can get out of here father!" Pinocchio seemed to really believe this. The older man gave the block a bit of a doubtful look.

"Really? With this big block? You think so?"

"It's true." The two looked over at the group. The older man seemed a little surprised to see the group, but Pinocchio wasn't since he'd seen them already. Sora continued his explanation. "You use blocks like that to make ships that can travel between worlds. How'd you end up here?"

"The whale swallowed us," explained the older man. "It happened shortly after our world disappeared. We were floating along in the little boat, and then this whale suddenly came and swallowed us! But my goodness, he swallowed all of you too?"

"Yep!" said Goofy. "Are you friends of Jiminy?"

"You know Jiminy?" asked Pinocchio.

"Who's that? A friend of yours?"

"He's my conscience!"

"Oh, I see." The older man didn't seem to quite believe Pinocchio. He must not know about Jiminy. He looked back at the group. "This is my son Pinocchio, and I'm Geppetto. And these two are Figaro and Cleo. Actually, Pinocchio wasn't with us when we got eaten. We were looking for him when our world disappeared. He only showed up just a few days ago. Thank goodness we're finally together again. I was so worried."

"Why is he made of wood?" asked Aladdin.

"Well, I'm a carpenter," explained Geppetto. "One of the things I make is puppets. When I made Pinocchio, I was wishing for a child, but I don't know why he came to life. It doesn't matter to me though. I'm happy enough to have a son now."

"Uh, where's Pinocchio?" asked Goofy. Looks like Pinocchio left while his father was talking. He must've gotten bored. Geppetto sighed.

"Looks like he wandered off again." Geppetto looked around Monsto's mouth and sighed. "Could you look for him for me? I'm afraid I'm not as spry as I used to be."

"Not like there's anything else we can do," said Sora. That said they started for the back to Monstro's mouth, but then Sora turned towards Aladdin. "Listen. I didn't say anything because I thought you weren't going to be with us for very long, but you need to work on your swordplay."

"Well, I usually avoid fighting, and I hardly ever get caught when I steal."

"In other words, you focused on speed and agility, not fighting skills." Aladdin nodded. Sora sighed. "Great. Well, might as well start working on it now." Aladdin gave him a look of disbelief.

"While we're fighting Heartless?"

"Be glad you're not learning from Seren. She'll train you 'till every fiber of your being is screaming in pain and still want more, and she won't try to save you if something tries to kill you." This got Sora some odd looks. Sora decided to elaborate. "She turns everything into a training exercise. And I do mean everything. And she'll try to drag you into it if she sees you. You always get some sort of injury. I'm still scared by her sometimes." This left the other three wide-eyed. Sora doesn't seem like the type to scare easily. "Can we go now?" The other three nodded wordlessly, and they went forward into the gut of Monstro.

The inside of Monstro looked rather odd. It was purple with some green and yellow patches. There were also some barrels. There were a bunch of holes too. It only took a quick look to determine that Pinocchio was not in there. Then a bunch of Heartless appeared. There were some Shadows, Soldiers, Air Soldiers, and some weird Heartless that looked like a ghost with an eye dangling out of its socket.

"_Search Ghost. Look out for teleport? What's that mean?"_ Then one of the Search Ghosts disappeared in a weird black light and reappeared beside Sora. It tried to grab him, but he knocked it away. _"Oh."_ Donald cast a Fire spell on a couple of Shadows, killing them. Goofy ran up to a Soldier and started bashing it with his shield. Aladdin blocked a swiped from another Soldier and slashed it. Sora kicked an Air Soldier into a Search Ghost, cast Thunder on them, spun to block an attack from an Air Soldier coming up behind him, and cut off its head. Then he ran over to Aladdin.

"You're holding your sword wrong." Aladdin gave him an 'Are you crazy?' look. Sora rolled his eyes, used a Blizzara to freeze the Soldier Aladdin was fighting, grabbed Aladdin's hands, and changed their position. "There, that's better." Aladdin sweatdropped.

"Can't that wait until after the fight?"

"No time like the present." Sora's eyes widened when he saw something coming right at them. "Look out!" He pushed Aladdin out of the way of a barrel with four spider-like legs. Before it could turn and try again, Sora hit it with a Fira spell, causing it to explode and take out a couple of nearby Heartless with it. Aladdin blinked.

"What was that?"

"Barrel Spider." Sora hit a couple of Soldiers trying to sneak up on them with Gravity and Thunder. "I guess their similar to Pot Spiders, except they explode." Then a Search Ghost appeared in front of them, only to get slashed apart by the Keyblade and a scimitar. "Nice to see you're getting used to this."

"Thanks…I think." Didn't take too long to take out the Heartless after that. As soon as they were done, Sora removed the Three Wishes charm and replaced it with the Jungle King charm. Aladdin looked confused. "What did you do that for?"

"Three Wishes is too short for me to use it like a sword. There's a chance I won't be able to reach an enemy with it. But I can't use it like a dagger because of how it's weighted. I'll just use one I know how to use for now. Plus, there are exploding Heartless here. It'll be better if I stay as far away from them as possible." That last point was a very good one, so no one decided to question it, even if Aladdin was a bit peeved that Sora didn't want to use his charm. The four looked around the area before moving on, and found a couple of chests. One had a hi-potion. The other one had another three puppies in it, only these were shaking and looked traumatized, probably because they'd gotten swallowed by a whale. Since it would be too dangerous to take the puppies with them, they backtracked back to the mouth to put them in the gummi ship. Then they went back into Monstro's gut and went through one of the holes.

Pinocchio was looking around the area it led to. Jiminy jumped out of Sora's pocket and onto his head again.

"There you are! Pinocch, we've been looking all over for you!"

"Geppetto's getting awful worried about you," said Goofy.

"Yeah, so stop playing around already!" added Donald. Pinocchio looked disappointed.

"But what about…"

"Pinocchio, who else is here?" asked Sora.

"Just me." I'm sure it's obvious how shocked Goofy and Donald were to see Riku there. Aladdin wasn't surprised because he had no idea who this was. Sora wasn't surprised for some reason.

"Well, wasn't expecting to see you here Riku." Riku raised an eyebrow. That wasn't quite what he expected. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much, just playing with Pinocchio."

"You find Kairi yet?"

"Maybe." Riku smirked. "Maybe if you catch us, I'll tell you." Then he grabbed Pinocchio by the arm and ran through a hole right in front of them with the group giving chase behind the two. Riku and Pinocchio somehow managed to disappear by the time they got in the next chamber though.

"Well, that's just great…" muttered Sora.

"Who was that?" asked Aladdin. "He had really weird hair."

"That was Sora's friend, Riku," explained Goofy. "But what was he doing here?"

"Let's find out," said Sora, walking forward.

What followed gave everyone involved a splitting headache. The inside of Monstro was like a maze. The most they could do was go through a hole and hope it led somewhere. Too make things worse, since they were in a living thing, Sora couldn't sense Pinocchio or Riku's aura. Plus they found two more groups of traumatized puppies that they had to take back to the ship. While they were dealing with the Monstro Maze, Riku was calmly carrying an unconscious Pinocchio through Monstro's intestines.

"Why do you still care about that boy?" Riku turned to Maleficent, who had just shown up from nowhere again. "He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions after all."

"Tch. I don't care about him. I was just messing with him."

Maleficent raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Of course you were." She formed a portal. "Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it." Riku snorted.

"Mind your own business." Maleficent didn't bother to respond to this and simply walked through the portal. Riku turned and continued going to wherever it was he was going.

Meanwhile, our heroes had had just about enough. They'd been wandering around, most likely in circles, for what felt like hours. If they didn't find something soon, at least one of them, probably Sora, would snap and do something drastic. "Does any of this look familiar?" asked Aladdin.

"I think I remember seeing that spot before," said Goofy, pointing at a spot.

"Why that one?" asked Donald.

"It looks like my Uncle Larry." This got him a look from the others. "Ya know, I don't think we ever tried going through that one." He pointed at a hole in a wall. Thing is, it was high, and you'd have to jump pretty high to get to it. Of course, that wasn't really a problem.

"Okay, you guys hold on," said Sora. Then he picked up Donald and threw him onto the ledge in front of the hole. He repeated this with Goofy and turned towards a wide-eyed Aladdin.

"Hey, wait a min-" Aladdin's protest was cut off when Sora grabbed him and threw him onto the ledge. Thankfully, it was a soft landing. Aladdin groaned and rubbed his now sore rear. "For a scrawny kid, Sora's pretty strong." The two anthros just nodded as Sora jumped onto the ledge with them. Then they went through the hole. Unlike the other areas, this was one large area with no other holes in it, or ledges, or barrels. All in all, it was a very large, lavender room that was almost completely empty. It was only almost because there was a large Heartless with tentacles there, and it had a despondent looking Pinocchio in its mouth. Sora's Scan said it was called Parasite Cage. How fitting. Riku was standing in front of it with his sword pulled out. He looked over at Sora with a smirk.

"'Bout time you showed up." He jerked his head towards the Heartless. "Think you're up for this?" Sora snorted, pulling out the Keyblade.

"I'm sure you know." The two friends looked at each other, but it was anything but a friendly glance. This was seemingly the signal to start, as the Heartless let out a screech and slammed its tentacles down on the teens. Or tried to, both darted off to the side at the last second and then came in, delivered several slashes to its body, and then jumped back right as it breathed out some kind of acid.

"Wow, it's like some kind of mirror," said Aladdin.

"I guess they learned to fight at the same place," said Goofy.

"He hasn't yelled at us to join in yet. That's weird," muttered Donald.

"I didn't think anyone could keep up with Sora," said Aladdin. Goofy shook his head.

"Sora can go faster. He just slows himself down so his friends can keep up with him."

Sora and Riku parried several tentacle strikes before bashing the tentacles onto the ground. The Heartless let out a loud screech, and the two boys took advantage of this by quickly running behind it and hitting it hard enough to make it spit out Pinocchio. The little puppet promptly ran out as fast as his legs could carry him. That was when Sora suddenly grabbed Riku, tossed him into a wall, and pinned him with his left arm while he kept the Keyblade pointed at the Parasite Cage, which hadn't quite recovered.

"Sora? ! What are you doing? !"

"I'm the one who should be asking that," said Sora, a little too calmly for everyone else's taste. "I heard Jafar mention your name right before we entered the chamber he and Jasmine were in back in Agrabah." The other's eyes widened, but Aladdin was the one to voice his thoughts.

"What? ! Are you saying he has something to do with what happened to Jasmine? !" Sora just shrugged, not even looking at Aladdin. Riku was not someone you could take your eyes off of. He continued his rather odd talk with the silver-haired boy.

"Are you working with them?" Riku narrowed his eyes.

"What do you care?"

"I don't want my best friend to become another Sephiroth!" At this point, a tentacle came whipping towards Sora. Sora blocked it with the keyblade, but Riku got free from his pin and made a break for it. Sora tried to go after him, but the Parasite Cage got in the way and blocked him. Aladdin and Goofy tried to go for him, but Riku hit them into the wall with his sword, leaving gashes across their abdomens. Donald squawked and ran to the two to heal them. Riku ran through the hole as the Parasite Cage suddenly pulled itself up to the ceiling and burrowed into the flesh to elsewhere. Sora growled slightly and walked over to the others. "You okay?"

"They'll be fine. Just let me finish healing them," said Donald, using a couple more Cure spells. "That guy wasn't pulling any punches." Aladdin suddenly hauled himself to his feet and gave Sora a look.

"I thought you said he was your friend! Why is he working with the Heartless? !" Sora sighed.

"That's what I wanna know." Sora turned towards the hole they came in through. "C'mon. Maybe we can still catch up with him if we leave now."

"Hey, Sora? What's a Sephiroth?" At Goofy's question, Sora tensed up, and the familiar dark aura flared up for a second, so the other three were surprised when Sora actually answered the question.

"A monster. Sephiroth is a monster." And with that, Sora left the chamber before they could ask him anything else.

"That guy is hiding something," muttered Aladdin.

"Yeah, but we need his help to find the king," said Donald. "We better go after him. He won't wait up for us." He was right. Sora didn't wait for them, but he got held up by some Heartless so it was easy to catch up to him. The rest of the trek to the mouth was spent in silence.

"Please give me back my son!" Well, that certainly didn't sound good. Geppetto was still on his boat, staring up on one of the platforms where a smirking Riku was holding an unconscious Pinocchio under his arm.

"Not a chance, old man. Me and this pupp-"

"Riku!" Sora instantly took off running and jumping towards Riku. He was in front of the two in only a few seconds with his daggers drawn. "Release the hostage!"

Riku did the first thing he could think of: He put his sword to Pinocchio's neck. Lucky for him, Sora was one of the two Tsviets that this works with. Sora growled slightly. "What are you doing?"

"This puppet has a heart."

"He's not a puppet! He's my little boy! Please don't hurt him!" Riku ignored Geppetto.

"He might be able to help someone who's lost their heart."

"Someone who's lost their heart?" Some of the pieces fell into place. About time too. Sora had been getting too many questions and too little answers. "You're talking about Kairi, aren't you?"

Riku gave Sora a nasty look. "What do you care?"

"She lost her heart, and you're teaming up with the things that did it? What sort of sick logic is that?" Riku growled.

"Shut up! You don't understand!" He started backing up into another hole that was behind him.

"I'll keep chasing you. Nothing will be able to stop me. You better be ready for that." Riku gave him one last look and then backed into the hole and into whatever chamber it led to.

"Why didn't you stop him? !" shouted Aladdin.

"He would've killed Pinocchio." Geppetto wrung his hands and looked at the travelers.

"Oh dead, oh dear, please go help Pinocchio. I don't think he'll be able to get out of this on his own," he said. It was obvious to anyone who looked that Geppetto was already worried sick.

"We can't jump that high," said Donald. Translation: Sora was going to have to help them up there, either by carrying them or throwing them. Sora calmly worked his way down, picking up another group of traumatized puppies, then worked his way back up with all of his partners. They went through the hole and blinked. It went straight up with some platforms. That wasn't the odd thing. What was odd were the blue-robed, yellow-capped Heartless bouncing around. They looked sort of like the White Mushrooms, but with a different coloring. They were completely ignoring the group.

"Hey, why aren't these guys attacking us?" asked Aladdin.

"They must be like those mushroom guys," said Goofy. Aladdin gave him a confused look.

"'Mushroom guys'?"

"They were these weird Heartless we ran into before," explained Donald. "They did charades, and we cast spells on them that matched what they were doing. They didn't attack us at all and gave us some really rare items if we attacked them."

"Oh. What's charades?" Sora got tired of their conversation and hit one of the Heartless with the Keyblade. It gave Sora a nasty look, stomped a couple of times, and disappeared. Seems they had the same reaction to physical attacks as a White Mushroom. Sora did this with the other Heartless in the chamber. Then he quickly transported the rest of the group to the topmost ledge. Above this ledge in the ceiling was a huge hole. Sora jumped up and into the hole. He didn't come back down. The others looked at each other until Aladdin shrugged and jumped into the hole. The anthros followed a second later. They found themselves landing in a chamber with fleshy pink platforms surrounded by a green liquid. Sora, Riku, and a seemingly unconscious Pinocchio were on the large center platform. Sora had his daggers out and in a position that suggested he was ready and willing to attack. Riku had his sword in a defensive position. Jiminy was trying to wake Pinocchio up.

"Release him," said Sora. Riku glanced towards Pinocchio.

"A puppet that's lost its heart to the Heartless…maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi." Sora narrowed his eyes slightly. Riku shifted his attention back to Sora. "How 'bout it Sora? Let's join forces to save her. We can do it together." Sora frowned and lifted his front dagger slightly.

"I said 'Release him,' and I meant now." Riku frowned.

"You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet with no heart?"

"At least he's not a traitor or a hypocrite!" Riku blinked at that.

"What?"

"The Heartless destroyed our world, and you decide to make them your ally. You talk about saving Kairi, but you're willing to sacrifice others to do so. You have abandoned your friends for the enemy, and you selfishly doom others for your own desires. A traitor and a hypocrite."

"At least I'm doing something to help Kairi!" Riku shouted lividly. Sora shook his head.

"Riku…Think. Is this something Kairi would want?"

"It's what's best for her!" Yep, there's a whole lot of hostility there. Everyone else knew better than to get close to the two boys, except for Jiminy. He was still trying to wake Pinocchio up.

"Pinocchio, Pinocchio! C'mon, wake up! We gotta get out of here!" Jiminy whispered urgently. Surprisingly, Pinocchio did lift his head a little.

"Jiminy?" Jiminy frantically nodded his head. "I'm…not gonna make it." Normally, when someone says something like that, you try to convince them otherwise. This was not necessary. As soon as Pinocchio finished the sentence, his nose grew six inches longer. If you don't know what that means…You probably didn't have a very pleasant childhood. Poor you. Pinocchio blinked, Donald went slack-jawed, Aladdin rubbed his eyes, Goofy tilted his head while a couple of question marks appeared over his head, and Sora blinked a couple of times. Riku raised an eyebrow at their expressions, as he didn't see that Pinocchio's nose had just grown. Pinocchio then smiled. "Oh, I guess I'm okay after all!"

Then there was a whistling sound. Sora and Riku both jumped back as the Parasite Cage landed between them. Pinocchio's eyes widened, and he dashed out of the stomach. Riku stepped back into a dark portal that appeared behind him. "Riku!" Too late. He was gone. Sora let out a curse. " *beep* Riku. What are you thinking?" Then Sora had to jump over a tentacle that tried to hit him. Aladdin came up behind it and put a deep slice in its back. It let out a roar and spun very quickly for something of its size, knocking Aladdin off the platform. Aladdin let out a scream and pulled himself onto a nearby platform. The area of his body that had come into contact with the green liquid was smoking.

"Don't fall into the green stuff!" Aladdin didn't have to tell them twice. Donald quickly hopped over to the Arabian and started using as many Cures as he could. Sora put his daggers away, pulled out the Keyblade, and turned into Wisdom form. That way he didn't have to worry about the acid. Goofy threw his shield at Parasite Cage and hit it right between the eyes. It roared and pulled back a tentacle to hit the dog anthro. Sora glided behind it and let loose a Blizzara spell on its unprotected back. It turned to try and hit Sora, but Aladdin hopped back in at that moment and landed another hit on it. Aladdin's skin was still a bit pink, and Donald was panting on the smaller platform.

"Hey! Be careful! I don't want to have to fix that again!" shouted Donald.

"Right, I'll be careful!" he shouted back. He then blocked a tentacle. Goofy jumped over and rammed it hard enough to send it back a couple of inches while Sora hit it several times with magical blasts. The Heartless then grabbed onto the ceiling, pulled itself up a few feet, and let go of the ceiling.

"Aero! Aero!" Aladdin and Goofy were covered in spheres of wind that lessened the shockwave enough that they weren't knocked off the platform. Donald was far away enough that he wasn't too affected. Since Sora was levitating slightly, he wasn't very affected. Donald, who had finally recovered, fired off a Fira spell, Sora hit it with more blasts, Aladdin got in another slash in its side, and Goofy threw his shield. Parasite Cage twitched a couple of times, and then spun around rapidly, its tentacles whipping around. Sora jumped over them, but Goofy and Aladdin were both hit. Sora's eyes widened at this.

"No!" And then everything just stopped. Sora blinked a couple of times. "What?"

"It's a spell!" It was Donald. He must've been out of the range. "It freezes time!"

"I'll get the others!" Sora quickly went over to his two allies. He didn't know how to undo it, and even if he did, they'd just go flying into the acid. He just changed their position so that they'd land on the ground on the platform instead of in the acid. Then he joined Donald in attacking the boss Heartless as much as possible, although it didn't seem like any damage was done. Then the time limit of the spell ran out. Goofy and Aladdin landed on the ground with an 'oof.' All the damage done by their attacks showed up almost all at once. It teetered a bit. Then it fell over and started to disappear.

"What just happened?" asked Aladdin.

"Magic," said Sora and Donald simultaneously.

"Ah." Then the stomach started shaking.

"We need to get out of here!" shouted Donald. The all ran, glided in Sora's case, out of a hole nearby. Fortunately, it led back to the previous chamber and they were able to get back to the mouth in about a minute. Geppetto and Pinocchio were running around the boat, securing anything that wasn't already secured to the boat. Geppetto noticed them.

"Hurry! I don't like the looks of this! I think he's going to be sick!" They certainly didn't want to experience that, so they ran to the gummi ship.

"Does this happen everywhere you go?" asked Aladdin.

"No, you're just unlucky," said Sora.

"Get ready!" shouted Donald. At that moment, Monstro started heaving and opened his mouth. The heaving motions caused the two ships to go flying out. The gummi ship flew off before they had to deal with whale vomit. Can whales even vomit? Well, they certainly didn't want to find out.

"So, where are we going now?" asked Aladdin.

"We're going back to Agrabah. We can't take you with us," said Donald.

"Hey! Wait a minute! You can't just-"

"Agrabah is in the opposite direction," said Sora.

"So?"

"We'll run into that whale again, and we can't warp in the middle of a flight. Besides, I have no problem with Aladdin coming with us. He obviously is willing to fight." There was silence as Aladdin grinned.

"Looks like you guys are stuck with me." Donald just sighed as they continued on. Sora looked back behind them, where they had run into Riku.

"_I'll find you again Riku, and I'll find out just what you're trying to do."_

Meanwhile, in the villains' hideout, Riku was looking at a comatose Kairi while Maleficent observed them.

"So, Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?" asked Riku.

"Precisely." Riku sighed.

"And her heart was…"

"Taken by the Heartless no doubt." Riku clenched his hands before turning to face the sorceress.

"Tell me! What can I do? !"

"There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the princesses of heart. Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lies untold wisdom. There you will surely find a way to recover Kairi's heart." Maleficient raised her hand. "Now, I'll grant you a marvelous gift: The power to control the Heartless." A black aura surrounded Riku. He didn't panic or show any fear. He just calmly watched as it went into his body. As it faded away, he turned to look at Kairi again.

"Soon, Kairi. Soon."

**-end of chapter-**

And that is that. That's right. I made Aladdin a member of their party. He just doesn't strike me as the type of guy who would sit back and let someone rescue their love interest. He'll be around for a while.

In case you couldn't tell, the reason Sora wasn't surprised to see Riku was because he heard him being mentioned by Jafar last chapter. Also, it may seem out of character for Sora to use an old Keyblade instead of a new one that his new party member gave him, but it's military logic. Besides, you want to stay as far away from explosives as possible.

Now, here's an omake that goes with the reunion theme going on in this chapter.

**Omake: What about the rest? Part IX**

Ed lazily swung his feet as he chewed his dinner. For some reason, he was in a mining town of some sort. He didn't know why. He'd been surrounded by some sort of dark energy and then was just in this dump. It hadn't been Nero though. He was familiar enough with the dark Tsviet to know that. Ed was guessing he'd somehow ended up in another world again. It wasn't too much of a problem. High tech prosthetics were fairly common in this world so no one bothered him about that, but all of the townsfolk seemed to think he was an alchemist. Ed snorted. Like alchemy was real. What a bunch of stupid concepts. He could transmute, but there was science behind it. Ed smirked. That ability was very useful. He was turning junk into gold so that the townspeople could pay their ridiculously high taxes. In return, he was given food and board. Those people were so stupid. If those taxes were causing them so much trouble, they should do something about it!

A commotion caught his attention. A young man wearing black pants, a black shirt, white gloves, and a red coat with an odd symbol on the back came flying out the door. Odd, that symbol seemed familiar. "Don't come back, government dog!" Ah, that explained it. The townsfolk weren't exactly fond of the government. The young man sighed and picked up his bag. Then he turned to face Ed. His hair was dark blond and in a ponytail. One of his eyelids was shut. It was flat too, so there probably wasn't an eye under it. His remaining eye was a light brown. The young man blinked and stared in disbelief.

"Ed?" The reaction was instantaneous. Ed was right in front of the man with his spear at his throat.

"How do you know my name?" The young man blinked.

"You mean…you really are Ed?"

"How do you know my name?" He got a relieved smile as an answer.

"I finally found you! Ed, it's me, Al."

"Who?" The man's face fell.

"Huh? What do you mean 'who?' I'm Alphonse, your little brother." Ed scowled and put his spear away.

"You got the wrong guy. I don't have a brother." Al got a look of disbelief on his face.

"But you gotta be. You look just like him, you sound like him, you even have the same name." Ed took a moment to think about that. He was sure he was in a world in another universe. Now, Ed wasn't an expert in the subject, but he figured it was possible that there was another version of him in this world. This Al guy seemed pretty determined to believe Ed was his brother though. He probably wouldn't accept that theory. "Brother?"

"Don't call me that. We're not brothers." Al looked hurt, but Ed didn't really care. "I'm out of here." Ed turned to go, but Al grabbed his shoulder. Ed spun to slit the younger male's throat, but Al was able to dodge it. Ed raised an eyebrow. "Not bad."

"Come with me!" Ed blinked.

"What?"

"You've just forgotten! If you spend time with someone you knew, maybe you'll remember something!" It was true that Ed's memories from before he was a Tsviet were pretty much gone. Mako and all that stuff. He didn't really care that he'd forgotten though. Still, he was getting tired of this town. The only reason he hadn't left was because he didn't have any idea where anything was.

"Sure, I've been wanting to leave this town for a while." Al's face immediately lit up with a happy smile.

"That's great!" Ed rolled his eyes. Honestly, why was this guy so ridiculously certain they were related? Oh well, it wasn't his problem. At least he could go somewhere else now.


	13. Chapter 13

Here we are in chapter 13. 13 is usually an unlucky number, but when it comes to Kingdom Hearts…well, it's probably still unlucky 'cause Organization XIII are the bad guys…mostly.

I'm sorry it took so long for me to update, but I couldn't remember if Rabbit's house was a tree or part of a hill or something else, and I couldn't find my copy of Kingdom Hearts. I still can't find it, but I thought I'd waited long enough to update and went ahead with posting the chapter. I just removed most descriptions of Rabbit's house. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Anyway, this one is a bit of a filler chapter. Sora wants to do a couple of things before they go to Atlantica. I still own nothing except for the plot.

Also, I would like to say thank you Gamefaqs! They have information that comes in handy when writing stories. It only occurred to me to do that just now. I don't know if I should have been doing that the whole time…Oh well, I'm doing it now.

**-end of AN-**

After some flying and shooting of Heartless ships, the group reached the next world. It appeared to be a purple rock sphere with water, coral, and a sunken ship in it.

"Wow, that's a lot of water," said Aladdin. He's from the desert. He is not used to something like this.

"Well, we've got a problem," said Sora. "Unless this thing doubles as a submarine, we won't be able to go down there without drowning." Aladdin blinked.

"What's a submarine?"

"It's sort of like a ship that works underwater with air for people to breathe," explained Sora.

"I can use my magic to let us breathe underwater," said Donald.

"So, this one won't be a problem then?" asked Sora.

"Nope."

"Mind if we make a detour?" Everyone blinked. Sora seemed to want to stop at every single world they found. "We can come back with the warp gummi, right?"

"That's right!" said Chip.

"And we can go to worlds we've already been to with the warp gummi. It shouldn't be too much of a problem," continued Sora.

"What do you wanna do?" asked Goofy.

"Go to the Coliseum and get Phil to give Aladdin a quick crash course in hero training, and then go to Traverse Town to drop off the puppies and see Merlin about the new spell I learned."

"Why do I need training?" asked Aladdin.

"No offense, but you still need to work on your sword work. Hercules has a sword, so I guess that Phil teaches some sword work."

"Hey, they're having a tournament at the Coliseum again," said Dale. "Maybe you can enter. They'll probably have a great prize again!" Donald looked like he was going to argue, but he huffed and crossed his arms.

"Well, fine, but we better not take too long!"

A minute later, they were hovering in front of the Coliseum.

"Whoa, that was fast!" said Aladdin.

"I guess Cid knows what he's doing," said Sora. "I wish I could remember why his name is so familiar…"

They just disembarked and went into the lobby. Phil looked up from where he was writing something down. "Oh, you're back." Phil raised an eyebrow at Aladdin. "Who's the yahoo?"

"Hey!"

"This is Aladdin," explained Sora. "He decided to come with us because the opposition kidnapped his girlfriend." Aladdin blushed slightly, but didn't deny it. "He doesn't have much fighting experience. Can you give him some hero training?"

Phil rubbed his chin. "Damsel in distress, eh? She a looker?" This got three of them to sweatdrop. Sora didn't for some reason.

"She's a princess," said Goofy.

"Okay, sure. I'll give him a crash course." They sweatdropped some more. "You guys wanna fight in the tournament while we're doing that?"

"Can't I do the training after the tournament?" asked Aladdin.

"Well, if you wanna watch, fine." The four adventurers blinked. "They've already got a registered team. If they change it, they'll have to start all over, and the next Phil Cup won't be held for another few days."

"It's called the Phil Cup?" said Donald, giving Phil a weird look.

"Yeah, this one's the Pegasus Cup. So, you signing up or not?"

Five minutes later, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were in the dugout waiting for their turn. Sora had switched to Three Wishes and was doing some practice swings with it. He wanted to get some practice in with his shorter Keyblades.

"It's too bad Aladdin couldn't fight with us," said Goofy.

"I dunno. For a second there, he had a weird look on his face," said Sora. "I think he might try something…"

Then they had to start fighting. First up were 2 Search Ghosts, 3 Air Soldiers, and a Bandit.

"More Heartless?" muttered Sora. "I was hoping to actually fight some people." Then he ran forward and brought his Keyblade down on the Bandit. It managed to block, barely. Donald used a Thunder to hit the Air Soldiers, and Goofy threw his shield at one of the Search Ghosts, making its head fly back. The other one teleported behind Sora and tried to claw him, but Sora spun around and cut it in two. The Bandit tried to attack him, but Sora spun back around and hit it with a roundhouse kick that sent it lying into the barrier. Then it was impaled when Sora threw the Keyblade at it. Meanwhile, Goofy was continuing to bash the Search Ghost with his shield, and Donald cast Gravity on the Air Soldiers. Since they were now on the ground, Sora grabbed the Keyblade, ran over and beheaded one of them. Goofy had finished taking care of the Search Ghost, and came over to help. The Air Soldiers didn't last long after this.

The second round consisted of 2 Bandits, 4 Shadows, and 3 Barrel Spiders. Sora and Donald hit the Barrel Spiders with Fira spells. The explosion took out the Shadows and Bandits.

The third round was against 1 Fat Bandit, 2 Large Bodies, 1 Barrel Spider, and, and a Pot Spider. Donald hit the Barrel Spider with a Fira, Goofy threw his shield and shattered the Pot Spider, and Sora slashed open the back of one of the Large Bodies. Sora and Goofy continued to attack the large Heartless from behind while Donald hit them with spells and dodged the fireballs the Fat Bandit spat out. All in all, not a difficult match.

The fourth round match was against 2 Green Requiems, 3 Yellow Operas, and 5 Pot Spiders. Sora immediately went for the Green Requiems. Donald hit the others with a Stop spell (He figured out how to use it by watching Sora use it a few times on the way to Atlantica.) on the rest of the Heartless. Goofy started bashing those Heartless. When Sora was done with the Green Requiems, he helped Goofy. Time started up, and the Heartless had to go through all the attacks at once and died.

Fifth round found the three fighting 2 Fat Bandits and 4 Search Ghosts. Goofy did his spinning move, Sora somehow managed to jump onto a Fat Bandit's shoulder and cut its head into two, and Donald used Thunder on them. Surprisingly easy considering it had so many Search Ghosts.

The Sixth Round was a bit…stranger. There were three little mushroom Heartless with purple hats and a blue-black cloak. Sora raised an eyebrow. _"Black Fungi. Poisonous. Does that mean they actually attack?"_ The three Fungi started walking forward. Cautious, Sora threw his Keyblade at one. The Black Fungus twitched a little and then squatted down, releasing a purple gas. Sora's eyes widened and he covered his nose and mouth. "Don't breathe the gas! It's poisonous!" The anthros' eyes widened and they quickly covered their faces as well. The Black Fungi walked closer. Sora took a deep breath, held it, and quickly ran forward to hit one as many times as he could. After two hits, the Black Fungus suddenly turned to stone. Sora hit it anyway. When most people hit stone, they either break their hand or break their weapon. Sora actually managed to shatter the Fungus. Unfortunately, the shattered Fungus released more gas when it got shattered. Sora winced and jumped back, but noticed that some of the gas was sticking to his skin. _"Are there spores in there? *Beep*! I hope antidotes work on it."_ Donald and Goofy had figured out that long distance attacks worked best and were staying as far away from the mushroom Heartless as possible. Donald quickly hit one with a Fira spell. This time, both the Fungi turned to stone. Sora pulled out a vial filled with a golden liquid and threw it at the Fungi. They blinked in confusion, but it didn't have any effect on them.

"What the heck was that? !" shouted Donald.

"It was a soft! It's supposed to de-petrify people and kill stone monsters! I guess it doesn't have any effect on these guys since they're Heartless!" And then the Black Fungi turned back to normal. The three then concentrated as many attacks on them as they could. Thankfully, they took out the remaining Black Fungi before they turned into stone again. Unfortunately, the fungi released more gas. Sora sighed when he noticed his skin now had a purple tint to it. He pulled out three bottles with green liquid in them. He handed one to Donald and Goofy, who gave them odd looks. "They're antidotes. They counteract most poisons." Sora downed his to prove his point.

"Hey! Where'd you get a soft and antidotes? !" It was Yuffie. She and Leon were competing too, but their group had ended up on the opposite end of the chart. The two groups would only fight if they both made it to the finals. "I haven't seen any since the Heartless got our world!"

"Chris made them, and Kimihiro makes sure that everyone always has some, even if it means sneaking them into clothes," explained Sora.

"Who're those guys?" asked Yuffie. "Your family?" Sora nodded. "That's some family."

"No kidding."

The seventh round was a bit normal. Their opponents were 5 Barrel Spiders and 5 Pot Spiders. The Barrel Spiders were blown up by Fira spells and the ensuing explosions shattered the Pot Spiders.

The eighth round had 3 Fat Bandits and 2 Large Bodies. Donald started casting spells. Goofy threw his shield at one of the Large Bodies' heads while he circled to the back. Sora threw the Keyblade at a Fat Bandit's head. Then he ran toward it, casting a Blizzara spell. He slid past the Fat Bandit and picked up the Keyblade. Then he sliced the Fat Bandit in two vertically. Donald's continued spell casting finally killed the two Large Bodies. Goofy continued bashing the back of another Fat Bandit and destroyed that one. That left one Fat Bandit. It started spitting fireballs at the three, but they were either able to dodge or block them. Then they launched attacks right at its head. Said head was destroyed, and the body followed soon after.

The last round was Leon and Yuffie, as expected.

"We're gonna kick your asses!" shouted Yuffie. Leon just stayed silent. Sora pulled out his daggers instead of the Keyblade. He remembered what happened last time he took on Leon, and he was going all out this time. That meant using the weapon he was most comfortable with. He also went into Valor form. Yuffie blinked several times. Leon raised an eyebrow. Then Sora suddenly appeared in front of Yuffie and made several slashes at her. Yuffie backflipped away, barely avoiding the slashes, but there were some thin scratches on her abdomen. "He got faster!" Then Sora managed to get up close to Yuffie again. This time, he did land a slash before Yuffie managed to backflip. When Yuffie landed this time, she started tossing shuriken at Sora as quickly as she could. Now, Yuffie may be an immature, hyper girl, but she isn't kidding when she says she's a ninja. She threw the shuriken with enough force and speed that most people wouldn't be able to react to them. Sora managed to dodge and block them all, but it looked like he needed enough concentration to do so that he didn't move forward. Yuffie decided to keep tossing her shuriken.

You're probably wondering what Leon has been doing. He wasn't doing nothing. As soon as he saw just what Sora was now capable of, he'd tried to go over to Yuffie, but Goofy had blocked him. Goofy does not have much of an offense compared to Leon, but he has a great defense. Good enough that he was able to block all of Leon's attacks, even if he was wincing every time Leon's gunblade connected with his shield. Donald cast a quick Aero spell on Goofy. Leon snarled and sped his attacks up. Now, Goofy was having trouble defending himself. Donald cast a Fira spell on Leon, but he knocked it away with little problem. Then he knocked Goofy to the side and ran over to Sora. Fortunately, Sora saw him coming and was able to block the attack. Yuffie took this opportunity to use one of her limits and heal her abdomen. Then she realized something.

"Those were all of my shuriken!" Sure, she could go over and try to get them, but it wouldn't be safe with Leon and Sora exchanging blows in the middle of the thrown shuriken. Yuffie sighed. "Well, this is just great." Then she had to dodge a Blizzara spell and Goofy's shield. _"I can't believe it! I'm gonna have to use my other limit if I wanna last!"_ Yuffie held her hands up. A large, blue, translucent, glowing shuriken appeared in them. Then she threw it at Goofy. He ducked, but the shuriken suddenly turned right around and hit him in the shield arm. He yelped and dropped his shield. Then the shuriken changed direction again and headed towards Donald. Donald squawked and ran a couple of feet to the left. The shuriken changed direction again and continued heading for the Magician.

"Aero!" The spell slowed the shuriken down slightly, but it still hit him in the shoulder. Goofy was trying to use a potion to heal his arm, but Yuffie was fighting him hand to hand to prevent this.

"_Donald can use a healing spell, so I need to take him out. Goofy can't use magic so he's less of a problem, and Leon's taking care of Sora."_ Yuffie's thoughts were cut off when Sora suddenly appeared in front of her. Her eyes widened. _"He managed to get away from Leon!"_ Then Sora kicked Yuffie in the stomach hard enough to send her flying into the force field. Yuffie coughed up a bit of blood and fainted while her shuriken disappeared. Donald let out a sigh of relief and quickly cast a group Cure.

"You actually beat Yuffie." Uh oh. Leon was starting to come over. "I guess you guys are stronger than I gave you credit for." With that, Leon twirled his gunblade, causing a blue energy to cover it, making the blade longer and a bit wider. Goofy and Donald glanced at Sora. He was heavily panting. He also had a few small cuts on his body, which had probably been larger before Donald used Cure. Sora was currently trying to figure out what to do.

"_Leon was going easy on me last time! I need to think of something fast or I'll be down for the count!"_ Then Leon ran up, and Sora didn't have time to think. Sora brought up one dagger to block an overhead strike and immediately had to use his other dagger to block a swipe from the side.

"Aero!" Donald quickly cast the defensive spell on Sora. It did little to help though. Leon's hits were still coming through, and they still made Sora feel like his arms were going to get ripped out their sockets when he blocked. Goofy quickly tried to hit him with his shield, but Leon easily knocked this attack away. Then he slashed Goofy across the chest and kicked him into the force field, knocking him out. Sora tried to attack him at that moment, but Leon brought his gunblade back around and hit Sora in the head with the flat side of the blade. As Sora was knocked to the ground, Leon whirled around and shot at Donald, who was about to use a Cure spell. The bullets hit him in the hand, arm, and shoulder. Donald let out a loud squawk, dropped his staff, and grabbed his injured arm. Leon took a step towards Donald, but stopped and turned back around. Sora had pushed himself back to his feet, but he was panting, sweating, bloody, and could barely hold his knives.

"You're still conscious?" Leon sighed and shook his head. "You really don't know when to quit. If we keep going, you'll end up much worse than this, and we really can't afford that right now."

"Tsviets…either win…or die…" Leon's eye twitched at this.

"You can't be serious! What sort of shit-brained idea is that? !"

"Nngh!" Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger.

"Honestly, I don't know where you even got such a stupid idea."

"Nnnn…."

"And what's a 'Tsviet' anyway?"

Sora suddenly grabbed his right shoulder and let out a blood-curdling scream. Leon froze up and wondered if he'd hurt Sora more than he meant to. That worry was pushed out of his mind as Sora suddenly started violently stabbing his right shoulder with a dagger. For a moment, Leon just stared in shock. Then he acted.

"Hey! Stop that!" Leon grabbed Sora's hand. The Tsviet growled and bit Leon's hand. Leon quickly drew his hand back. _"He broke the skin…I hope he's not rabid, because I'm seriously starting to think he is."_ Sora had gone back to stabbing his shoulder again. Leon turned to Phil. "Hey! Call the match!"

"Uh…Slight problem. The force field doesn't go down until one team goes down or gives up." Leon turned to look at Donald, but the duck seemed to have passed out from blood loss. Well, there went the giving up option. Leon made a note not to knock out the two normal members of the team if he had to fight Sora's team again. He turned back to Sora, who was still stabbing himself. Leon decided to just knock Sora out with the butt of the gunblade. The only problem was that Sora caught Leon's hand before the weapon could connect with his head. Leon's eyes widened.

"_He can still use that arm? !"_ Surprisingly, despite his shoulder being a bloody mess, Sora's right arm was still functioning just fine. Sora looked up at Leon and sneered. Then he tried to stab him with the bloody dagger. Leon wrenched his hand out of Sora's grip and backed up in time to avoid the swipe. Instead of returning his attention to his shoulder, he staggered forward and tried to stab Leon. Normally, Leon would not worry too much about this. Sora was moving more sluggishly, and it was easy to avoid the knife, but there was a lot of blood dripping onto the ground from Sora's shoulder. Leon grit his teeth. There was only one thing he could do. He threw his gunblade to the ground. "There, I give." Sora blinked and looked from the gunblade to Leon. Then his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell forward in a dead faint. Leon groaned. "Now you faint…"

About an hour later:

Sora groaned as he woke up. _"Ah, great, Leon must've knocked me out…Why does my shoulder hurt so much?"_ Sora rubbed his eyes.

"You're up!" Sora tilted his head and saw Goofy, Donald, Leon and Yuffie watching him. Aladdin presumably was still with Phil. Yuffie grinned. "We were starting to think you would never wake up."

"Huh? Why?"

"You started stabbing yourself," said Leon.

Sora blinked and took a look at his right shoulder. The first thing that occurred to him was that his shirt and vest were bloody and had holes around that area. The second thing that occurred to him was that he could see some pretty bloody bandages under the holes. The third thing he noticed was that his right arm was in a sling. Sora groaned. "What exactly did I do this time?" Leon narrowed his eyes.

"You don't remember?"

"I blacked out while you were talking about how I was being stupid." Leon rolled his eyes.

"You started stabbing yourself, and when I tried to stop you, you attacked me. And I'm assuming this has happened before since there were scars all over your shoulder and shoulder blade." Yuffie decided to add her two cents.

"Plus you just said 'This time.'"

Sora sighed. How exactly was he supposed to explain it? "It's a defense mechanism." He got disbelieving looks. "It's not a defense against an outside threat. It's a defense against an inside threat." Yuffie gave him a worried look.

"You're not sick, are you?"

"No, I don't think so anyway. Chris would've noticed. It's from something Shinra did to me." Yuffie nodded in understanding. Everyone else seemed confused. "The Shinra Company regularly experimented on people." This time Yuffie slammed her fist into her open hand with a triumphant look on her face.

"I knew it!"

"And you're one of these people?" asked Leon.

Sora nodded. "Yeah, it's probably why my limits are so odd…Anyway, the reason I started stabbing myself is because there is one thing that I rejected so violently that when it starts to act up, I attack it."

"Shouldn't your immune system be attacking it?" asked Leon.

"Well, that experiment had to do with injecting foreign cells into my body. My body actually accepted them, but I was so upset by it, that whenever my mind picks up that they're starting to act up, I just…I dunno…freak out and attack myself. I can never remember doing it though."

"Why your shoulder though?" asked Yuffie. "That's kind of a weird place to do it."

"That's just where the cells are most concentrated."

"How often does this happen?" asked Leon.

"Not too often. Only when I'm really stressed and don't calm down."

"Are you gonna be okay Sora?" asked Goofy.

"Oh, yeah, I'll be fine in a couple of days. I'll just use my left hand until then."

"Yeah, but won't that be really awkward?" asked Yuffie.

"Not really. I'm ambidextrous." Everyone blinked. Actually, that sort of made sense. Sora didn't seem to favor either of his hands when he used his daggers, and he kept both his hands on the Keyblade at all times. "So, where's Aladdin?"

"He finished training with Phil. We don't know what he's doing now," said Donald. Yuffie snickered slightly, which got her some odd looks. Then Aladdin came in.

"Hey guys…What happened to Sora?"

"Sora went psycho and started stabbing himself," explained Donald. Aladdin gave him a weird look. Sora sighed and explained again.

"Okay, what's a cell though? Is it like a prison cell?"

"They're microscopic things that make up the bodies of all living things," said Leon, giving Sora a look that said 'Where'd you get this guy?'

"Oh, what's microscopic?"

"Too small to see," said Donald.

"Ah."

"Is there anyone who can speed this up?" asked Donald, pointing at Sora's injury.

"You could try Aerith or Merlin," suggested Yuffie.

"Looks like we're going back to Traverse Town then," said Sora. The group of would-be heroes got up and left the Coliseum. Yuffie turned towards Leon.

"Do you think he realizes they won?"

"Probably not. Aladdin wasn't there, Donald and Goofy were unconscious, and Sora just admitted he doesn't remember what happened."

"Sweet! I'm gonna try to swipe the prize!" Yuffie ran off. Leon just shook his head at his partner's antics.

Meanwhile, the group that we focus on arrived in Traverse Town. Aladdin looked around in amazement. He'd never seen most of the things that were here, so everything was new to him.

"Sora!" Conveniently enough, Aerith was next to the mailbox. She walked over to the group and looked Aladdin over curiously. "I don't remember seeing you around before. Are you new?"

"Aladdin's from another world," explained Sora. "He decided to come with us when his girlfriend got kidnapped."

"Well, Jasmine's not really-"

"That's so brave of you. She's very lucky to have someone like you," said Aerith. Aladdin blushed slightly.

"He could mess up the world order by coming with us though," said Donald.

"True, but I don't think that will happen if Aladdin has only good intentions," said Aerith. Then she turned to Sora. "Are you okay? It looks like you were pretty badly hurt."

"I'll be fine in a couple of days, but Yuffie said you might be able to speed it up a bit."

"Well, I could try. If nothing else, I can repair and clean your clothes. I'll take you to where I'm staying."

"I'll go visit my nephews while you do that," said Donald. "Come get me when you're done." He then walked over to his nephews' shop.

"Donald has nephews?" asked Aladdin. Goofy nodded.

"Yep! Huey, Dewey, and Louie! They're triplets."

"So, where are you staying?" asked Sora.

"The hotel."

"Won't we have to go through some Heartless to get there?" asked Goofy.

"Yes, but don't worry. Even if Sora can't use his arm, I'm sure you won't have any problem." It wasn't very far to the hotel, and the only Heartless they ran into were Shadows and Soldiers. They certainly were a lot easier to deal with compared to some of the other Heartless they'd had to contend with recently. Even if Sora was only using his left hand, this didn't seem to affect his fighting. Surprisingly, Aerith was capable of fighting too. She was a mage and used some high level spells. "Well, here we are. I stay in the red room. Goofy, Aladdin, would you mind waiting in the green room? Leon's not here so he shouldn't mind."

"No problem," said Goofy. The two went into the green room. Then Aerith and Sora went into the red room.

"Now, let me see your shoulder." Sora took off his jacket, shirt, and the bandages and turned around to expose his back to Aerith. "Wow, that's looks really bad." Aerith took a closer look at it, and her eyes widened. "Sora, where did you get this?"

"I kind of started stabbing myself. It's a long story."

"There's some old scar tissue here. Has it happened before?"

"Yeah, it's happened less and less as I've gotten older."

"…Yuffie says you used to live in the Shinra building. Who did you live with though?" Sora was silent. "I understand that you don't want to talk about it…You know, my boyfriend once mentioned that a little boy lived in the SOLDIER quarters. It was confidential though, so he couldn't talk about it very much. That boy was you, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…"

"I thought so. That has to do with why you did this, doesn't it?" Sora was quiet. "You don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to, but I think that if you want to stop hurting yourself, you'll just have to accept what's bothering you." Sora was still quiet. "Well, I'm done. There wasn't much I could do, but I did heal it a little. If you want to see if it can be healed any more, you'll have to go see Merlin." Sora nodded. Aerith quickly started winding bandages around the shoulder. "I'll start fixing your clothes up. I'll give you a shirt to wear until then. I doubt you want anyone to see these scars."

"…Thanks."

"By the way, a few hours ago, we got some new arrivals. They're a bit unusual, an elderly man and a living puppet." Sora's head shot up.

"Geppetto and Pinocchio!" Aerith chuckled.

"They did mention you guys. How did you meet?"

"We ran into them when we got swallowed by a whale." Aerith blanched. "Yeah, we can't figure out what it was doing in innerspace either. Do you know where they are?"

"They were staying in a vacant house in the First District when I last saw them. I think they'll probably end up staying there." Sora nodded in understanding. "Now, do me a favor, and don't try to rip out your shoulder again." Despite himself, Sora smiled as he nodded again. Aerith finished tying the bandage, went over to the dresser, rummaged around in a drawer for a moment, and came back with a simple white shirt. "Here you go. Try not to destroy it. It can be difficult to find decent clothes, and I don't think Leon will appreciate having to get a new one." Sora nodded, quickly slipped the shirt on over the bandages, and put his arm back in the sling. "Now, go visit your friends, but go get Donald first. I doubt he'll want to be left out."

"Yes ma'am." Sora walked over to the door connecting the red room to the green room and walked through it.

"You're done already? That was pretty quick," said Aladdin.

"There wasn't much she could do. She suggested seeing Merlin," explained Sora. "She also said that Pinocchio and Geppetto are here." Goofy lit up.

"Really?"

"Yeah, they're staying in the first district at the moment."

"You wanna check up on them?" asked Aladdin.

"We should go get Donald first," said Goofy. Sora nodded.

"Aerith said the same thing. He's in the first district too though, so it's no big deal." The group left the hotel and quickly went back to the first district. They had to deal with a small amount of Heartless, but nothing too difficult.

"Actually, I'd like to make a quick stop at the synthesis shop first," said Sora when they were back in the first district.

"What's a synthesis shop?" asked Aladdin.

"It's where you use all those strange things that Heartless drop to make items you can use," explained Goofy.

"Oh, so that's what that stuff was. Guess I don't need to hold on to this stuff then." Aladdin started pulling out all sorts of booty from who knows where: shards, gems, and some weird sort of goo. Goofy and Sora blinked.

"Where'd you get all of that?" asked Sora.

"I kind of took it from the Heartless we were fighting. I thought it might be valuable and they certainly weren't gonna use it, so I grabbed it. There was some more, but that girl you fought caught me when I was grabbing stuff at the Coliseum and threatened to expose me if I didn't give her half." Yep, Aladdin was definitely a thief. Sora decided not to worry about it and just walked into the store.

"Welcome, kupo!" Aladdin stared.

"Uh, what are those?"

"They're moogles," said Goofy, like that explained everything. Abu jumped out of Aladdin's jacket to look at one of the odd little creatures. Then he poked its pom-pom.

"Don't touch me pom-pom, kupo!" The moogle punched Abu. The monkey screeched and darted back into Aladdin's vest. Everyone else just wondered why the moogle had an English accent. "You want to synthesize something or not?" He seemed grumpier than before now. They just got an elixir, a power chain, a dark ring, an AP Up, and an angel bangle and left. Then they went to Huey, Dewey, and Louie's store.

"Hi guys," said Dewey.

"How ya doin'?" asked Huey.

"Fine," said Sora. "Donald, it looks like Pinocchio and Geppetto are here. We were gonna go visit them. Wanna come?" Donald nodded.

"Sure."

"You guys come back later! We'll give you a good deal on some new weapons."

The four guys walked around the first district for a few minutes. It wasn't hard to find the house. Living puppets are unusual even by Traverse Town's standards. A friendly Samaritan pointed them towards the right house, and they went inside. Cleo and Figaro were playing in a corner, Geppetto was drawing on a sheet of paper, and Pinocchio was playing with a top. When he saw his friends come in, he grinned and went over to them.

"Sora!" His face fell when he saw Sora's arm. "Your arm…"

"This happened after we got out of Monstro. It doesn't have anything to do with him." Geppetto looked up from what he was working on.

"It's nice to see you got away from Monstro. I was worried he might eat your ship again."

"Nope! We got out of there before he could," said Aladdin. Geppetto smiled at them.

"Well, that's good to hear."

"Hey, how did you guys get here anyway?" asked Goofy.

"Well, we floated along in that odd space for a little while," explained Geppetto. "Then we got sucked into an orange swirling space. I thought we were going to be ripped to shreds, but we landed in this town instead. An odd man named Cid helped us find this house. Then he told us about the gummi ships. They're really interesting. I thought I'd try designing some in my spare time. I finished one already. I'd like you to have it." He opened a drawer and pulled out a rolled up paper. He handed the paper to Donald, who unrolled it and looked at it.

"Hey, this blueprint's not bad…" Geppetto nodded and turned to Pinocchio.

"Isn't there something you wanted to give them too, Pinocchio?"

"Oh, that's right!" Pinocchio pulled something out and handed it to Sora. It was a yellow star charm with a wooden chain. "I found it right before we got out of Monstro. It sort of reminded me of your key thing, so I thought you'd like it."

"That's really sweet of you." Sora pulled out his Keyblade, and, with a bit of difficulty, switched the Three Wishes charm with the new one. With a flash of light, the Keyblade changed again. The shaft was still short, about the same length as Three Wishes. In addition, the whole thing seemed to be made of wood. The 'teeth' of the key were a wooden gear, another smaller gear partially stuck out of the other side of the shaft a few inches below, the top of the guard had several wooden gears, but the sides appeared to be belts that connected the gears at the top to a couple of wheels at the bottom, the handle was simply a thin piece of wood, and the charm and chain were at the base of the handle. _"It looks sort of like the inside of a clock."_ Sora picked it up and the name came to him. "Wishing Star." He wasn't sure what that had to do with Pinocchio, but he figured there was a reason behind the name.

"Gawrsh, are you sure it's okay for us to take all this?" asked Goofy.

"Of course! You saved us after all," said Geppetto. "Besides, we certainly can't use either of them."

"Aw, but father-"

"I know you'd like to see some other worlds Pinocchio, but it's just too dangerous for us. We can't fight or defend ourselves at all. The most we can do is avoid the Heartless. You understand, right?" Pinocchio sighed sadly.

"Yes, father."

"Hey, Pinocchio." Pinocchio looked over at Sora. "You should listen to Geppetto. He's only saying this because he doesn't want to see you hurt." Pinocchio looked down, sad but aware that Sora had a point.

"Yeah, I know…"

"Listen to your conscience. You have one for a reason."

"Okay…" Pinocchio looked up at Sora with hopeful eyes. "You'll come visit again, right?" Sora grinned at the puppet boy.

"Of course!" With that, they went back outside.

"So, are we gonna see this other guy Leon mentioned?" asked Aladdin.

"Yeah, I should probably get this shoulder fixed as soon as I can, but I wanna get you guys some new weapons and stop by the Dalmatians' place first." Aladdin looked confused.

"Dalmatians?"

"The puppies, remember?"

"Oh yeah…"

They headed back to Huey, Dewey, and Louie's store.

"Hi guys!" said Louie.

"Back for those weapons?" asked Huey. "We got some new staffs and shields in."

"We might have a weapon for the other guy too," said Dewey. "What kind of weapon do you use?"

"A scimitar." Dewey dug around behind the counter and pulled out a sword that looked like Aladdin's regular sword, only it was shinier.

"We got some Iron Swords. They only cost 500 munny each," said Dewey.

"That sounds like a lot of whatever that is," said Aladdin.

"Those pretty stones that the Heartless drop when you defeat them are munny," said Goofy.

"Really? That's pretty convenient," said Aladdin.

"Yeah, for some reason, monsters seem to always have money on them," said Sora. "It's weird, but no one complains about it."

"What about for me and Goofy?" asked Donald.

"Well, hold on." Huey started going through a barrel. Louie started sifting through the contents of a large box. Huey pulled out a staff that looked a lot like Donald's first staff, except it was red instead of blue. "We have the Magus Staff for 1000 munny."

Louie pulled out a small grayish-blue shield with a dark gray lining and what looked like a light gray fleur-de-lis except the two side spikes were curling in. "And this is the Gigas Shield. It costs 1000 munny too."

"That's 2500 munny all together," said Sora. "I think we can afford it. Go ahead and ring it up."

"Okay!" Donald and Goofy happily took their new weapons. Aladdin looked at his a little strangely. "What's wrong? Don't you like it?" asked Huey.

"It's nice. I'm just not used to getting stuff like this." He looked at his three companions. "You sure you don't mind this?"

"Nope! Don't worry about it!" said Goofy.

"We have to work together, so we all need good weapons," said Donald.

"Don't worry about it," said Sora. "After all, what are friends for?" Aladdin blinked.

"Friends?"

"Well, I respect you enough to consider you a friend. Try not to change that, okay." said Sora.

After that touching scene, they started towards the entrance to the Second District. The Heartless weren't that hard to deal with, even when a Large Body showed up during fights. There were at the house in no time at all. Sora looked around for a moment. "Huh?"

"Something wrong?" asked Aladdin.

"No, there was just something here last time that's not here now."

"How many puppies are there?" asked Aladdin, looking around. "It looks like there's already a lot here."

"I think we've found 30 something so far…" said Goofy. Aladdin's head shot to the side to look at Goofy in disbelief.

"30? ! How many puppies are there? !"

"I think there's supposed to be 99."

"…Why do they have so many?" Sora just shrugged while Donald went over to the green circle and started summoning the puppies from the gummi ship. The puppies immediately went over to their parents, and the dogs started nuzzling their children. After a few moments of this, the larger dog dug around under a couch, pulled out a box, and nudged it towards Sora. Sora opened it and found a mythril shard, a whole mythril crystal, a megalixir, and, surprisingly, a page from Pooh's book inside. After thanking the Dalmatians, they continued towards Merlin's house in the third district. When they got there, Aladdin looked around the cavern in interest.

"How are those stones moving?"

"Beats me," said Donald. "Maybe it's some type of earth magic…" Then they jumped across the rocks and went into the stone hut. Merlin looked up from where he was drinking some tea.

"Hello there. I see you've picked up a new traveling companion."

"You're a magician like Donald, right?" asked Aladdin.

"That's correct. I, along with the Fairy Godmother, was asked to assist the keybearer."

"Fairy Godmother?" said woman appeared in a small shower of sparkles. Aladdin blinked, but after being around Genie, it wasn't that odd an entrance.

"Hello there my dear. I see you've found a summon gem." The traveling group blinked.

"Huh?" The fairy godmother looked over at Aladdin.

"A gem that houses the spirit of a creature whose world disappeared. They can be used in battle. They're stones that look rather unusual."

"I think I know what you're talking about." Aladdin reached into his sash and pulled out a hollow piece of glass shaped like a teardrop and about half full of water.

"Where'd you find that?" asked Donald.

"I saw it lying on a plank back in Monstro. I picked it up before Sora chucked me up to the higher level."

"Oh, the poor dear, he's just a baby," said the Fairy Godmother.

"Can I summon it?" asked Aladdin, looking a bit excited. The Fairy Godmother shook her head.

"Some types of summoning magic can be used by anyone, but some types can only be used by certain people. I'm afraid summoning gems fall in the latter category."

"Oh…" Aladdin looked disappointed.

"You want to have a summon?" asked Sora. Aladdin nodded. "I'd give you a summon materia, but I didn't have any on me when I got sent here."

"What's a summon materia?" asked Aladdin.

"In my home world, we had little gems called materia. Different types of materia did different things. One type is summon materia, which you can use to summon powerful creatures. They function a bit differently than these summons though."

"That is one of the types of summons that anyone can use though," said the fairy godmother. "What about you Sora? Would you like the summon?" Sora nodded. Aladdin sighed but handed the summon gem over to Sora. "Bibbity bobbity boo!" She tapped the summon gem with her wand. Again, Sora felt a foreign entity in his mind. The difference was this one was more scared than Simba had been and didn't seem to know how to talk. That was probably because it was a baby. Sora mentally gave it some soothing words until it had calmed down.

"Now, what do you say to practicing some of your magic? I'd like to see how you two have progressed," said Merlin.

"Can you help with my shoulder a bit first? I kind of hurt it." Merlin pulled back Sora's collar and took a look at his shoulder. He raised an eyebrow, but cast a spell that left a green afterglow.

"There, it should be safe to use your arm by tomorrow. Until then, you should try to avoid using it. Now, let's start working on your magic." Merlin tapped his staff on the floor, and the section they were standing on lifted up into the attic. "Why don't you go first this time, Donald?" Donald nodded, took out his staff, and walked over to the floating furniture. Goofy sat down on the ground to watch since he was completely incapable of using magic. Sora decided to watch Donald while leaning against the wall. Aladdin walked over to Merlin.

"Hey, can I learn some of these spells? They're pretty useful."

"Hmm…Let me take a look." Merlin waved a hand, and some sparkles went over Aladdin for a moment. "Well, that's a bit unusual."

"What is?"

"You're body has a natural resistance to magic for some reason. It's rare for that to happen. It makes it so that magic has much less of an effect on you, but it also makes it rather difficult for you to do magic." Aladdin blinked. Merlin quickly explained. "Most people with a strong resistance are completely incapable of using magic. It looks like you'd be able to use status magic though."

"So, what's that mean?"

"Status magic is used on opponents. Different spells have different effects, they can poison, confuse, put to sleep, etc. The only thing is…Heartless are made completely of darkness. They don't have any of the body parts these spells effect, so status magic is useless against them." Aladdin drooped slightly.

"Oh…" He sighed and straightened up. "I guess that means I'll just have to make do with my sword then…"

"Don't let it bother you," said Sora. "If the Pot Centipede had used that attack on a normal person, they would've died." Aladdin turned towards him.

"You were listening?"

"Sorry, old habit." Sora straightened up and turned towards him. "But seriously, that's pretty useful. With very little combat experience, you survived a spell that should have killed you. With some training and experience, you should be able to get hit by a spell and hardly be affected, and that can be big trouble for some opponents."

"You guys don't seem to have any trouble with spells," pointed out Aladdin.

"I've been training since I was a kid. I've built up a resistance to magic. It's probably the same with Donald and Goofy." Sora turned towards Merlin. "Right?"

"That's correct. Repeated exposure to magic builds up a resistance to it. I'd say the three of you have a resistance that is about equal to Aladdin's."

"Sora's not too much younger than me though…"

"Age has nothing to do with it, my boy. Resistance is built up by being exposed to magic." Merlin made a sweeping motion towards the other three. "Magic is very common in their worlds, so they have been exposed since they were young. Magic is rare in your world, am I right?" Aladdin nodded. "You are going to be exposed to much more magic now. As such, your resistance to magic will grow much stronger very quickly. By the end of the journey, most types of magic should have much less of an effect on you."

"Well…I guess that's good news," said Aladdin, scratching the back of his head. He shrugged. "At least I won't have to worry too much if we run into more sorcerers."

"That's the spirit!" Then Merlin turned towards Donald. "You've improved quite a bit! Now, why don't you let Sora have a turn?" Donald nodded and walked over to them. Sora walked over to the furniture.

"Here goes nothing." Sora felt out the new presence in his mind and pulled it into the real world. That was when things got weird. Sora suddenly felt something very wrong with his body and opened his eyes. It wasn't difficult to figure out what was wrong. "Why the *beep* am I so small? !" It looked like someone had cast a Mini spell on Sora. Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin burst out laughing. Merlin just looked at Sora curiously.

*POP!*

Sora turned to find the source of the sound and blinked. A baby elephant was looking at him with big blue eyes. It also had a little yellow hat, a ruffled collar that reminded Sora of a clown, and the biggest ears he had ever seen. The baby elephant picked mini-Sora up with his trunk, looked him over, made a happy sound, and put him on his back, right behind his head. A bit confused, Sora grabbed on. Then the elephant did something very unexpected. It started flapping its ears. This wouldn't have been notable, if not for the fact that the action lifted it off the ground. The baby then started flying around happily, causing everyone to stare at the odd sight.

"Wow, a flying elephant," said Aladdin.

"I'm not sure that's supposed to be possible," said Donald.

"It's kind of cute," said Goofy.

"Is that all he does?" asked Sora. Yeah, flying was nice, but not that much use in a fight. Then the little elephant (For some reason, Sora wanted to call it Dumbo, but that didn't seem like something you should call a baby of any species.) shot a blast of water out of its trunk and hit a teapot. The water actually broke the teapot. Sora blinked a bit. _"Hey, that was sort of like water magic."_ "Can you do that some more?" The little elephant trumpeted and started spraying everything with water. The porcelain was destroyed pretty quickly. The cabinets were more difficult to destroy and took a few seconds to break. After a couple of minutes of this, Dumbo suddenly disappeared, Sora grew back to his normal size, and Sora dropped to the ground. Fortunately, after his body went back to normal, the fall was only about a foot and he landed on his feet. "That was really odd…"

"Well, the Fairy Godmother did say he was just a baby," said Merlin. "If he were an adult, you'd probably stay the same size, and he probably wouldn't be able to fly either. How's Simba been doing, by the way?"

"Oh, I'll show you." _"Hey, Simba, Merlin wants to see how we're doing."_

"_Okay!"_ Sora quickly summoned the lion and demonstrated how they fought together.

"So that's how he got a giant cat to appear out of nowhere," said Aladdin. "I wondered about that…"

"They've improved. Sora doesn't need to channel as much mana to Simba as he did last time," mused Merlin. "I'm satisfied with your progress in summoning. Now, show me how you can use normal magic." Sora nodded and started using all the different spells he had learned. "You taught yourself Stop? When did that happen?"

"Not too long ago," said Donald. "He hasn't had too much practice with it quite yet."

"Sora, can you show me a plain Fire and Blizzard spell?" Sora paused, concentrated, and then shot a fireball at a wardrobe. Merlin sighed. "That was a Fira spell."

"Yeah, hold on…" Sora held out his hand and concentrated. A fireball shot out of his hand. Sora blinked in confusion. "Huh? That was Fira again…"

"Are you channeling too much mana?" asked Merlin.

"I don't think so. It's the same amount as I always use."

"The same amount…" Merlin's eyes widened. "Could you perform a Fira spell one more time? And a Blizzara spell as well?" Sora nodded and performed both quite quickly. "That's…very odd…"

"What do you mean?" asked Sora.

"You have experience with magic, correct?"

"Yeah, using materia."

"Different levels of a spell require different amounts of mana to use. You noticed that when you used spells with materia?" Sora nodded. "Just now, that Fira spell used the same amount of mana that a regular Fire spell would use, and the Blizzara spell used the same amount of energy as a Blizzard spell." Everyone's eyes widened.

"What? !" shouted Sora.

"How's that possible?" asked Donald.

"It must be because of the experiments," muttered Sora. "Do I need to worry about this?"

"Well, not needing a large amount of mana for a high level spell certainly isn't a bad thing," mused Merlin. "But I have no idea what it means." Sora muttered something inaudible under his breath. Merlin seemed to catch something though, and he frowned. "Well, if it bothers you that much, I might have something that can help you back in my study." The five went back down and Merlin started rummaging through his carpetbag. After a few minutes of this he triumphantly pulled a small green book with rusty chain coming off a corner. "This may look like a book, but it's actually one of those charms that you use to change the form of your Keyblade."

"Seriously?" asked Aladdin. He had a point. It didn't look like one of Sora's key chains.

"How'd you end up with it?" asked Sora.

"I found it during my travels," explained Merlin. "I can't use it, of course, but I decided to hold on to it in case I ever met a keybearer. I would have given it to you before, but it seemed like you were more of a physical fighter than a magic user. Maybe it can help you with your magic." Sora took it from Merlin's hand, and switched it with Wishing Star. The Keyblade changed so that it was short, blue, and looked sort of like astronomy equipment. The book was hanging off the end on a rusty chain. Sora twirled it a few times, noting that his magic did feel a bit stronger.

"Spellbinder…thanks…" Sora put the key on his back and walked back over to the lift. "We found a couple more pages from Pooh's book. I think I'll go visit him."

"Who's Pooh?" asked Aladdin.

"He's the bear in the book," said Goofy.

"Huh?" As Sora was taken back down, the situation with the odd book was explained to Aladdin. Sora walked over to the book, opened it, and was sucked in. As Sora looked around the pages, he noticed that two more scenes had popped up. Sora took a look between the two before heading over to the one that looked like it was a large tree, but took off his sling and stuffed it into one of his pockets first. He was getting tired of the reactions people had towards it. After he walked over to it, he found himself surrounded by trees with a large one standing out from the others. Sora looked around but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Hello?" Sora's eyes went over to a log. There was a very nervous voice coming from it. "I-is anyone there?" A pink head poked itself out of the log and looked around.

"_Is that a pig?"_ The little pig sniffled and slowly came out of the log and looked around.

"Wh-wh-what am I to do? I'm all alone. Pooh? Pooh? Where are you? It's me! Piglet!"

"You're friends with Pooh?" Piglet spun around, saw Sora, squeaked, and ran away. Sora sweatdropped. Maybe he shouldn't have been so quiet when he was walking over. "Hey, it's okay!" Sora walked in the same direction and saw Piglet cowering behind a shrub near the large tree. "I'm a friend." Piglet looked up.

"R-really?" Sora nodded with a smile.

"I know Pooh too."

"You do?" Sora nodded again. "Oh, y-you see, I-I have something for him. I have to take it to Pooh right away!" A crunching sound caught their attention. They looked down the path and saw Pooh coming up it while sniffing.

"Oh, I believe I smell a delicious something-" He took an extra big sniff. "A something like honey!"

Piglet started waving his arms. "Pooh!" This did get Pooh's attention though.

"Hello, Piglet. How have you been?"

"Oh, I-I'm so glad to see you. I thought you'd gone away." Sora found this a little funny. He wondered if everyone in this book felt that way. "I brought wh-what you asked for." He gestured over to a rock that had a large red balloon tied to it. Pooh smiled and went over to it.

"Thank you Piglet. Now I can finally have some honey."

"How are you going to get honey with a balloon?" asked Sora.

"I shall hold on to the balloon, and fly like a bee up the Hunny Tree, see," explained Pooh.

"But, it you take their honey, won't the bees be angry?" pointed out Piglet. Pooh blinked.

"Oh…you're probably right…" He tapped his head in thought for a second before he seemed to have an idea and turned to Sora. "If you could only chase away those bees, I'm quite certain I could get a small morsel of honey. Would you help me get some honey?"

"I don't see why not," said Sora.

"You probably need to know a little bit about the Hunny Tree then." The three looked up to a nearby tree limb where Owl was perched.

"How long have you been here?" asked Sora.

"Oh, a few minutes. The Hunny Tree is full of beehives, but that's not where the honey is. That's where the bees live. The honey is in those hollows in the tree." Sora looked over at the large tree. Indeed, there were several beehives and hollows in the tree. "Of course, when Pooh gets close to these hollows, the bees will defend their honey. The balloon will probably be able to take a few stings, but it will pop in no time. Sora, you need to follow Pooh by climbing on the tree limbs. That way, you can knock away the bees before they get too close to him."

"That shouldn't be a problem," said Sora.

"Does that mean I can get honey now?" asked Pooh.

"Yeah, go ahead." Pooh lit up, untied the balloon from the rock, and started floating up. Sora started jumping onto the limbs. In no time, they reached the first hollow. As soon as Pooh started reaching into it, bees started coming out of the nearby beehive. Sora grabbed Spellbinder (with his left hand of course) and started hitting the bees with the flat of the blade. This stunned them enough to make them fall to the ground, but bees kept coming out until Pooh finished with that hollow and started floating up to the next one. Sora continued knocking away bees, and Pooh kept eating all the honey he could. This went on until Pooh finished eating at the last hollow and realized that he was still floating higher.

"Oh bother. The balloon doesn't want to go back down." Sora threw the Keyblade at the balloon, popping it, and caught Pooh as he fell down. Pooh rubbed his stomach happily.

"That was yummy in my tummy, but there's room for a bit more." Sora sweatdropped.

"Don't you think you've had enough?" Pooh shook his head.

"Pooh can eat quite a bit of honey," said Owl. "Don't worry. He eats large amounts of honey all the time."

"I see…Well, I guess I'll check out that other place then," said Sora.

"Oh, did someone else come back?" asked Pooh. Sora nodded. "Let's go see them." Sora jumped down back to the ground, put Pooh down, and then took a moment to find where the Keyblade had landed. Then the three started down the path away from the tree, and Sora suddenly found himself back on the pages of the book without Pooh or Piglet.

"Huh, that's weird. Can they not come here?" Sora shrugged and walked over to the other pop-up.

When Sora walked into the scene, he saw a vegetable garden, and another house built into the scenery. Pooh and Piglet were in front of the house. As Sora headed over, Piglet saw him and ran over to him.

"Look, Rabbit's house c-came back!" He pointed over towards the house. "But it looks like Rabbit isn't home. Pooh's been calling and calling, but the house says no one's home.

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Mind if I take a look?"

"I don't, but what if Rabbit's house does?"

"Don't worry. I'll be fine." With that, the two walked over to join Pooh.

"Hello? Are you sure Rabbit isn't home?"

"Yes, nobody's home!" Sora choked back a laugh and walked around the house. There was a hole there, which made sense since it's a rabbit burrow. Sora crawled through and saw a yellow rabbit looking towards the door.

"Who is this person named Nobody?" Sora was amused enough to stand off to the side and watch what was going on. It seemed Pooh had found the same hole as Sora and was crawling in. "Nobody, have you seen Rabbit?" Rabbit's eyes widened and he turned around towards the hole.

"No! No Rabbit here! No one's home!" Rabbit was too late though. Pooh had crawled in enough to see him.

"Hello Rabbit!" Rabbit got a bit shifty-eyed.

"Why, P-Pooh! What a pleasant surprise!" Piglet then climbed in after Pooh. "And Piglet too! Nice to see you Piglet. And…" This was when he finally noticed Sora. "Is this a new friend?"

"Yeah, I'm Sora."

"Nice to meet you." Rabbit turned back to Pooh. "P-Pooh, I'm sorry, but I'm all out of honey at the moment."

"What about that?" asked Sora, pointing up at a pot hidden in the rafters. Rabbit's eyes widened.

"H-Honey? ! Now, how did that get there?" Sora jumped up to the beam, grabbed it, carefully picked up the pot and dropped back down. Rabbit sighed, seemingly admitting defeat. He turned towards Pooh. "Would you like some, Pooh? Don't feel that you have to of course." He looked hopeful at this, but Pooh happily rubbed his paws together.

"Oh, thank you Rabbit! I would like just a small smackeral. I'm quite hungry." Pooh stuck his paw into the pot and then stuffed it and the honey coating it into his mouth.

"Um, Pooh Bear…" Pooh stuck his head into the pot. "You're not eating the whole pot, are you?" Pooh continued to eat the honey. Rabbit just sighed. "Once you start, there's no stopping you, is there?" Sora chuckled a bit. It didn't seem that much else was happening so he decided to leave and go back to Merlin's house. Fate must have had other ideas though, because Piglet suddenly came running up with a panicked look on his face.

"You okay?" asked Sora.

"H-Help! Please help Pooh!" Piglet panted and Sora raised an eyebrow.

"What happened?"

"He's stuck!"

"He got his head stuck in the jar?"

"No!" A moment later, Sora was staring at Pooh, who was stuck in the hole that led out of Rabbit's burrow.

"How much honey was in that pot?" asked Sora in disbelief.

"A lot. I was saving it," said Rabbit.

"Oh, help and bother. I'm stuck again. I came in through this hole, so it must have shrunk." Sora sweatdropped.

"I don't think that's quite how it works Pooh." It was awkward talking the Pooh's backside, so everyone went outside so they could talk to him face-to-face.

"Oh, how will I eat honey if I'm stuck here?" Pooh's head lit up a bit. "When it's lunch time, perhaps you could bring me a honey jar?"

"No honey 'til you're unstuck!" said Rabbit, looking very serious. Pooh drooped at the prospect of not being able to eat honey anytime in the near future. Rabbit just sighed again before turning towards Sora. "If Pooh doesn't slim down, my house will be plugged up forever! If only there were something we could do…"

"What about a lubricant like soap or something?" suggested Sora.

"I don't have anything like that," said Rabbit, but he thought for a second. "I know! A bit of carrot top juice should do the trick. I have a carrot patch on the other side of the stream. Carrot top juice is the key to slimming down Pooh!" Just then they heard an odd bouncing noise. The three turned towards the source of the noise as Rabbit's eyes widened. "Oh no! Not him!" Coming down the path from the woods was what looked sort of like a tiger, only it was bouncing on its tail. As the bouncing 'tiger' bounced forward, he landed on a pumpkin and smashed and knocked over some bean poles, making Rabbit groan. Then the 'tiger' landed on Sora's head, nearly knocking the young Tsviet over. It was looking at him rather curiously with a grin on its face.

"Hey there! Name's Tigger! T-I-double-guh-RR! That spells Tigger! Well now, I don't think I've ever seen you before!"

"Hello Tigger!" said Pooh, waving from where he was stuck. "You've just bounced my new friend Sora." Tigger cocked his head and bounced off Sora and over to Pooh.

"Hey Pooh! Say, you're looking mighty uncomfy today. Is that some kinda new exercise? Why, bouncin' around is a lot more fun!" To demonstrate, Tigger started bouncing on his tail again. Sora cocked his head.

"How come you like bouncing so much?" Now Tigger was bouncing around Sora.

"Why? 'Cause bouncin' is what Tiggers do best! Speaking of which, my bouncin' spot has gone and disappeared! So for now, this'll be my new bouncin' ground!" Then he started bouncing all around Rabbit's house, destroying several plants in the process. Rabbit panicked and grabbed Sora's arm.

"Tigger's bouncing will ruin my vegetables! And if we don't give Pooh some carrot top juice, he'll be stuck forever!" Rabbit didn't need to say anything more. Sora quickly looked around, found the carrots, and ran over to them. He was just in time too. Tigger was about to land in the carrot patch. Sora quickly cast an Aero spell, more to protect his injured arm than anything else, and then brought up his left arm. Fortunately, the Aero shield was enough to repel Tigger. Unfortunately, this gave Tigger extra height, and he decided to keep bouncing around Sora. So Sora had to keep running around to keep Tigger from completely burying the carrots. Aero wore off a few times. When that happened, Tigger was knocked away by Sora's arm right before the Tsviet cast another Aero spell. This went on for a few minutes until Tigger finally bounced off to the side onto the ground and stopped. Rabbit quickly ran forward to start pulling carrots out of the ground.

"Say, you kept up pretty good there Sora, especially for a non-Tigger! Let's have another go sometime!" Then Tigger bounced off and away from Rabbit's house. Rabbit let out a sigh of relief and then looked over his ruined vegetables sadly.

"This isn't the first time he's decided to bounce in my garden, but I think this is the most damage he's ever done."

"Yeah, sorry about not reacting sooner," said Sora.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you managed to save the carrots. Pooh is my friend, but I do not want him stuck in my house for who knows how long. Go wait in my house. I'll tell you when I've given him the juice. Then you should push him as hard as you can." Sora nodded and went inside while Rabbit went to the back of the house. After a few minutes, Rabbit shouted "Okay, go ahead!" Sora backed up, then ran forward and slammed into Pooh with his left shoulder. Pooh went flying out of the hole. Sora climbed out after him and saw Rabbit shaking his head and Pooh with his head in another pot.

"First my vegetable patch and now this," muttered Rabbit. "At this rate, I'm not going to have any honey left."

"_Do rabbits even eat honey?"_ wondered Sora. Then again, this world existed in a book. Normal stuff may not apply here.

"Oh, bother. Where am I?" asked Pooh, looking around with the pot still on his head. "It's ever so dark in here. Well, it isn't so bad I suppose. There is plenty of honey." Then some eating noises started coming from the pot.

"Pooh, really likes honey, huh?" said Sora.

"Yes, I worry about him sometimes…" said Rabbit.

"Well, I'll just be going then," said Sora, turning to leave.

"Bye Sora," said Piglet, waving good-bye. Thought I forgot about him, didn't you?

"Feel free to visit anytime," said Rabbit, waving good-bye. Sora returned the wave as he walked down the path and back onto the pages of the book.

Sora took out his sling. "Huh?" In his pocket was an emerald leaf. "Where'd this come from? I'll just ask when I get back." Then he quickly put his sling back on and walked over to the portal that would take him back Merlin's house.

"This food sure looks weird."

"That's just because you're used to Arabian food," said Merlin. Sora blinked. It looked like they were making dinner. Merlin noticed Sora from where he was stirring a pot of stew. "Ah, Sora, how did your visit go?"

"It was okay. There was a crazy bouncing tiger thing. I had to keep him from destroying a carrot patch, and I found this in my pocket." Sora held up the leaf.

"Oh, it's a summon gem," explained Merlin.

"What was a summon gem doing in a book?" asked Donald.

"Maybe that was just the world it ended up in when its world was destroyed," suggested Goofy.

"That could be possible," mused Merlin. Sora just went over to the Fairy Godmother.

"Oh poor thing. This one's just a baby as well."

"Another baby?" asked Sora.

"Yes, it looks like it. He seems to be different from the summon from earlier though. Bibbity bobbity boo!" Sora once again found himself trying to calm down a new presence in his mind. After a few minutes of this, it had calmed down, but…

"_That looks a bit like a wildebeest."_

Now it was scared again.

"_Leave it alone Simba!"_

"_Huh?"_

"_It probably thinks you're gonna eat it!"_

"_Actually, I've mostly been eating bugs and grubs for the last few years."_ Sora wasn't sure what sort of lion ate bugs, but that did seem to reassure the new presence a little.

"Well, why don't we see what this new summon can do while the food finishes up?" suggested Merlin. So they all found themselves in his attic again with the floating furniture. Sora went through the steps to summon and found himself looking at…

"A baby deer?" That's what it was. A baby deer that would make any girl go 'Aww…' at its cuteness. It nervously sniffed at Sora to see if he was friendly. "That explains the wildebeest comment…Uh, yeah, I'm nice. I won't hurt you." The fawn blinked up at him. Sora held out his hand. The deer sniffed it a few times before nuzzling it. "So, what can you do?" The deer backed up a bit and then started leaping all over the place, and as it did so, it left behind clear glowing bubbles. "What are those?"

"They contain mana," observed Merlin. "You can probably use them to restore your mana. I guess this a support summon instead of an offensive one."

"Ah." That was when the time limit ran out and the deer disappeared. "Well, I don't think there's much else I can do with him."

"I'm hungry," said Goofy. "Can we eat now?"

"Yes, the food should be about ready." They went back down and ate dinner, although it took a moment for Aladdin and Abu to eat their food. They weren't picky enough to not try it though. After eating dinner, Merlin had Donald and Sora practice their magic some more. Aladdin didn't want to be left out, so Goofy took him back outside to train a bit. Two hours later, everyone turned in for the night. The next morning, they had a nice warm breakfast while Merlin looked Sora's shoulder over. "Well, I don't want you to put too much stress on it, but I believe you'll be able to fight with it again."

"That's good enough for me."

"Good, then we can leave as soon as we get your clothes back," said Donald.

"Yeah, we still need to find Jasmine," said Aladdin.

"Okay, okay…we'll go back to Atlantica." They quickly went over to the hotel.

"Back for your clothes?" asked Aerith. Sora nodded. Aerith handed him the clothes, which looked good as new. "Just change in there." Sora nodded again and headed into the room.

"Hey, Aerith, right?"

"Yes Aladdin?"

"You and Sora seem pretty close. Were you friends before all of this started?"

"No, but we were from the same world. I'd never met him before he came to Traverse Town. Because of his eyes, I recognized he was from Shinra, but he's also…different from most people who are affiliated with the company."

"What's Shinra?"

"Don't worry about it. I don't think you'll ever have to deal with them, and I don't think Sora would be comfortable if you knew." Just then Sora came out.

"Thanks for fixing my clothes. It would've been a pain if I had to replace them, especially if Seren found out."

"You guys are leaving now?" asked Aerith. They all nodded. "Well, good luck."

"Thanks." With that, they made their way back to the first district and their gummi ship and set off for the world they'd found the day before.

**-That's it-**

Right filler chapter done. Thank goodness. Maybe it's just me, but filler chapters don't seem to be as good as the regular ones. Oh well, most of the information isn't too necessary. I think the only things in the chapter that will be mentioned later are Sora's shoulder and Pooh's book.

I think that's 60 puppies. It looks like I missed a group in Monstro though. Along with a book page. I'll find a way for Sora and company to pick them up later.

There is a very good reason for Sora freaking out and stabbing his shoulder. I can't tell you though. Just know that it will be explained eventually.

Sora being ambidextrous has nothing to do with being a Tsviet. He picked it up when he was younger by emulating someone he was around most of the time.

The conversations with Aerith are so difficult. She's really perceptive, but I don't want her giving away the plot. As for how she knows about Sora's past, Zack told Aerith about Sora, but he never told her his name. Or who raised him. Or why he was even living in the Shinra building. She just knows that he grew up with the SOLDIERS.

I figure Aladdin will do almost anything to save Jasmine. And the group was going to see Merlin eventually so I had to come up with a reason why Aladdin couldn't learn magic. Just to be clear, Aladdin cannot learn magic on his own, but he could use materia if Sora had some.

That's all I have to say. Here is an omake. This time, there are two Tsviets!

**Omake: What about the rest? Part X**

"Why the *bleep* am I stuck with you? !" shouted Kyo.

"I'm not exactly happy about it either," muttered Zakuro. "Where are we anyway?" They appeared to be in some sort of town/city. Everyone except for them was wearing informal yukatas. Something about this place felt off.

"Is this karma or something? I mean, out of everyone, I got stuck with you when the world ended?" Zakuro twitched at Kyo's ranting and rounded on him.

"I don't know! I'd rather be with Seren or Ash than you!"

"Yeah, well I bet even Chris would be better than you, and she'd probably have hit me with half a dozen spells by now!"

"Why you-" Zakuro pulled out her whip and tried to whip it around Kyo's neck, but he ducked under it and dashed up to Zakuro and tried to slash her abdomen with his claws, but she cart-wheeled out of the way. Now, Zakuro and Kyo are equals in every area. Seriously. If they were in a videogame and you used Scan on them, the stats displayed would be exactly the same for the two. This means that when they get into a fight, it can go on for hours. As a matter of fact, they've never managed to finish a fight. Someone always stopped them before they could, usually by bashing their heads together, hitting them with a spell, throwing something at them, etc.

This time, there was no one to stop them. The most the surrounding people could do was vacate the surrounding area. Long story short, they continued trying to kill each other for around half an hour before they both decided to perform their limit breaks and the familiar smoking energy surrounded them.

You know that Azul can transform into some sort of Behemoth thing? Well, Zakuro and Kyo have similar limit breaks, except they don't turn into Behemoths. Zakuro sprouted purple fur all over her body, hunched over as her body shape started to contort, her ears grew long and pointed, her mouth and nose lengthened into a muzzle, her nails turned into claws, and her feet lengthened and grew claws as well. In addition, her boots disappeared to somewhere, and her whip somehow got absorbed into her body.

Kyo hunched over as orange fur grew over his body, his ears grew even longer than Zakuro's, his hands became clawed, his feet got longer and clawed, and his face also got a muzzle, although it was shorter than Zakuro's. In addition, his shoes and shirt went missing. This folks is why they don't get along. Zakuro is a wolf and Kyo is a cat of some sort.

The two jumped and started biting and clawing at each other, but it would be boring if that was all they did. A purple whip-like tendril shot out of Zakuro's arm and into Kyo's side, knocking him into a building. Kyo landed on his feet though, and ran to the side, jumping at Zakuro from an angle she wouldn't be able to get him with her whip-tentacle. Zakuro retracted the tentacle, but Kyo was on her and trying to rip out her jugular. The tentacle came out of Zakuro's throat before he could do so, and Kyo had to leap back. Zakuro got up on all fours before Kyo could attack again. The two stood growling at each other for a moment before a voice cut through the silence.

"Well, this looks fun." There was a scary looking man standing there. He was wearing a black haori with a white sleeveless jacket, had some scars going over his chest and face, an eye patch over his right eye, his black hair was put up in several spikes with bells at the end, and he had a jagged looking sword in his right hand. For some reason, a little pink-haired girl was hanging onto his shoulder. The two were-people ignored him. This was a mistake. Zaraki let out an insane laugh and then jumped into the fray. Yachiru giggled and jumped off to the side to watch the ensuing fray. The fight went on for over three hours, and the damages caused by the fight cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. The shinigami never did manage to get their hands on the two Tsviets, mostly because they ended back in Destiny Islands several days later and never ended up in the Seireitei again.


	14. Chapter 14

I'm sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out! I took a summer physics course, and it took up a lot of my time in June. I only managed to write a few pages of this chapter during that month. Actually, I don't know how long it will take for the next chapter to come out either. I still have about three weeks until my next semester, but I have two classes with labs. If I have time to write, I will, but, well, we'll see.

Chapter 14, and the boys are finally going to Atlantica. Hey, that actually sounds nice. Maybe I'll just call them 'the boys' from now on. Well, maybe next chapter. Ariel kind of throws it off.

**-end of AN-**

The boys had used the warp gummi to go back to Atlantica. There was only one small problem.

"C'mon Abu. I know it's kind of weird, but Donald promises that we'll be fine, and he does know a lot of magic," said Aladdin. Abu had decided he didn't want to go to Atlantica and was now hiding in a vent that was too small for Aladdin to climb into. The most he could do was talk into it and hope Abu heard him.

"I don't think you're going to convince him," said Sora.

"You'd think Abu would be excited. We've never seen so much water in one place. It's like a giant oasis," explained Aladdin. Sora raised an eyebrow.

"Haven't you guys heard about oceans before?"

"Yeah, but it's really different than what I imagined…" replied Aladdin. "We probably won't get another chance like this. I don't want Abu to miss out on it." He sighed. "It's weird. We go practically everywhere together. I wonder what the problem is."

"Maybe he doesn't know how to swim," said Goofy.

"Well, yeah, that's because there's not a lot of water around Agrabah. I mean, I don't know how to swim either."

"You don't know how to swim, but you want to go to Atlantica?" asked Donald. Aladdin shrugged.

"It doesn't matter if I can swim or not if I can breathe underwater." He has a point there. "Now, are you gonna help me get Abu out of there or not?"

"If Abu doesn't wanna come, you shouldn't force him," said Sora. "He might hold it against you."

"Yeah, but… What if he messes with something that he shouldn't?"

"We'll keep an eye on him for you," said Chip.

"Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard," said Dale. Aladdin sighed.

"Okay, but it's not gonna be the same without him."

A few moments later, the boys were down in the ocean. Sora blinked when he realized that all of his clothes were missing except for the harness holding the Keyblade and the chain around his arm and looked down. Instead of legs, he now had what seemed to be a dolphin tail. "This is how we're going to breathe underwater?"

"Well, it works, doesn't it?" said Donald. His clothes were gone too, and he had octopus tentacles instead of legs.

"Why do I taste salt?" asked Aladdin. His clothes, including his hat, were gone, and his legs had been replaced with a sand shark tail.

"Ocean water is just salty," explained Goofy. Unlike the rest, only his head was unchanged, and that was on the body of a green sea turtle.

"Hey, wait a minute." Sora looked himself over again. "My daggers are gone!" Donald blinked and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oops. I forgot about those." Sora muttered some choice words under his breath.

"Why do I smell blood?" asked Aladdin.

"You're half shark now…You're probably just smelling my shoulder," said Sora, pointing at his shoulder, which was scabbed over, but not completely healed. "Hope there aren't any other sharks nearby."

"Hey, you got other scars," said Goofy. Sora blinked as he realized that they could see the scars on his chest and torso. Most were fairly light and appeared to be from slashes, but there was a scar from a stab wound that was over his heart.

"Well, I spar a lot with my family, and we use real weapons. I get slashed sometimes."

"We better start looking for his majesty." Donald turned in the direction he wanted to go off in and seemed to realize something. "…I don't know how to move like this." This made everyone sweatdrop as they realized that none of them knew how to use their new bodies.

"Now what?" asked Aladdin. Luckily for them, a dues ex machina came swimming up, three of them to be exact. One was a pudgy yellow fish with blue stripes and fins, one was a red crab, and the last one was a mermaid with a green fish tail, red hair, blue eyes, and a purple clam shell bra. The four boys were shocked enough by the appearance of an actual mermaid to just stare. The fishy denizens then noticed them and the crab and fish swam behind the mermaid.

"Relax Flounder, Sebastian. They don't look like one of them," said the mermaid. Then she took a closer look at the boys. "Although they do look a little different."

"They look weird," said the fish. Well, after seeing a mermaid, a talking fish wasn't that odd.

"Uh, what do you mean?" asked Aladdin.

"There's just something about you guys…Anyway, I'm Ariel, and these are Flounder and Sebastian. Are you guys from around here?"

"Not exactly…" Sora suddenly got an idea. "I'm Sora, that's Aladdin, that's Donald, and that's Goofy. We're from pretty far away. We swim pretty differently there. Can you show us how you guys swim around here?" Yeah, it was a long shot, but it was worth a try.

"Oh, that's no problem," said Ariel.

"Ariel! King Triton will not like this!" said Sebastian the crab…who seemed to have a Jamaican accent.

"Oh, he won't mind. It shouldn't take too long." Ariel swam over closer to the boys. "Okay, it's real easy to swim. You just have to get the hang of using your tail."

For the sake of everyone, I'll skip the swimming lesson. There's nothing interesting that happened. Just know that in 15 minutes they'd figured out how to move around fairly well.

"See? It's not that difficult. You'll have the hang of it in no time!" said Ariel.

"We've got company!" shouted Sebastian, pointing in the direction the three had come from. Swimming from that direction were three Heartless that had tentacles and a bubble with the Heartless crest around their heads. "Class dismissed!" The three natives to the world swam away, but Ariel stopped when she saw that the boys weren't moving.

"What are you doing? ! Get out of there!" Ariel's plea fell on death ears as the boys took out their weapons.

"_Sea Neons. There doesn't seem to be anything special about them."_ The fight started. Unfortunately, fighting underwater was different from fighting on land. For one, swinging a weapon took longer due to drag from the water. Another thing was that they still weren't used to moving as mer-people. Also, since Goofy no longer had hands or fingers, he had to put his shield on his back and hit the enemies with it like that. On the bright side, magic was mostly unaffected.

"Thunder!"

_**ZAP!**_

Except for that. Anyone nearby was electrocuted. If they weren't underwater, they'd probably cough up smoke.

"No Thunder spells until we leave," said Sora. No one argued. Sora tried to hit a Sea Neon with his Keyblade, but the drag was still making this difficult. Sora let out a growl and hit it with a Blizzara spell instead. This did freeze it. Then Sora hit it with the Keyblade and, despite the drag, managed to shatter it. Aladdin and Goofy were having a more difficult time. Aladdin was mostly blocking the strikes while Goofy was getting in close enough to knock it around. It looked like Goofy was still getting used to this form though. Thankfully, it seemed this type of Heartless wasn't too strong. It only took a few hits from Goofy for it to start dissolving. Then again, it may have been weak from that Thunder spell before. They weren't complaining either way. Donald had the least trouble out of them all. Casting magic isn't too different underwater. He just had to remember not to use any Thunder spells. After a couple of Fira spells (Learned while at Merlin's.), his Sea Neon was as dead as the others.

"Wow…That was amazing!" Ariel swam over to the boys. "You're really strong! Those monsters chased us here, and we couldn't do much of anything."

"Hey, where'd that fish and crab go?" asked Donald.

"Flounder and Sebastian hid in that clam down there," explained Ariel, pointing down at a huge clam that was closed. "We need to get them out now though. Do you guys have anything we can use to pry the clam open?" Sora swam down and pried the clam open with the Keyblade. The two hiding in it immediately swam out. Oddly enough, there was a green circle in the clam.

"A-are the monsters gone?" asked Flounder.

"Yeah, these guys took care of them," explained Ariel. She turned to the boys and smiled. "Thanks a lot. We'd have been in a lot of trouble without you."

"No problem," said Goofy.

"We need to hurry back to the palace," said Sebastian. "Those creatures might be heading there too!"

"How do you get to the palace?" asked Sora.

"It's easy. Just follow the tridents painted on the rocks," explained Ariel. "But would you mind if we travel with you? In case those things try to attack us again? I have some attack potions, but not enough for very many."

"What's an attack potion?" asked Aladdin. Sora elbowed him. "Ow!"

"Huh? Don't you have them where you're from?" The boys just shook their heads. "Wow, your ocean must be really different. They're potions made from lightning that strikes the ocean. We Atlanticans use them to defend ourselves from violent fish that attack us. They electrocute what they hit without the current traveling through the water," explained Ariel. Well, that would be useful since Thunder spells wouldn't be working very well down here.

"We need to get going! Now!" said Sebastian. Then he started swimming in the direction the three natives came from.

"Well, you heard him," said Ariel. The rest swam after him.

It looked like they must have disembarked in a small enclave. Outside was a wide expanse of water, rock, caves, and sea life. It was actually quite beautiful, and they would have liked to stop and look, but Heartless kept popping up and attacking them. And it wasn't just Sea Neons. Search Ghosts were there too. They fought and killed the Heartless they came across as well as they could. Fortunately, Ariel was able to give them a hand, and she obviously knew how to move underwater. Still, the boys were improving as they continued on their way to the palace.

"Hey, Ariel…"

"Yeah?"

"How come we haven't seen any more people on the way to the palace?" asked Sora. "It's kind of odd that you're the only one we've seen."

Ariel laughed nervously. "About that…I like to explore and find interesting stuff. I especially like finding things from the surface world."

"I worry about you sometimes Ariel," said Sebastian.

"It's no big deal…As long as Daddy doesn't find out."

"What sort of stuff do you collect?" asked Aladdin.

"Oh, anything unusual that I can find, mostly things a scavenge from those big wooden things that humans ride around in."

"That sounds a lot like someone I know," muttered Sora.

"Hey!"

"I wasn't talking about you Aladdin."

"Huh?"

"Oh, you're talking about Riku aren't you?" said Goofy. Sora nodded. Why is it this guy who understands Sora the best? We may never know.

"Who's Riku?" asked Ariel. Aladdin scowled.

"He's the-"

"Guy that Sora is looking for!" cut in Donald. They did not want Aladdin going on a rant about Riku. It could give them away.

"What does he look like? Maybe we've seen him," said Ariel.

"Oh, that's easy. He's got silver hair," said Goofy.

"Is he old?" asked Flounder.

"No, he's only about a year older than me," said Sora. "It's just that he was born with silver hair for some reason…We're also looking for a girl named Kairi. She's about my age with short red hair and blue eyes."

"Huh, we haven't seen anyone like that," Ariel. That was both good and bad. It was good because they wouldn't have to deal with Riku here. It was bad because Sora still wanted to find Riku, if only to get some answers and they still had no idea where Kairi might be. "But we'll keep an eye out for them. Silver hair's pretty unusual. If Riku comes here, I'm sure someone will notice."

"…Thanks," said Sora. And then Sebastian noticed some Sea Neons and Search Ghosts heading towards them.

"Incoming!"

It was not too long after this that they reached a city that appeared to be made out of giant sea shells and coral. There were a few mermen in armor made out of some sort of shell and swords swimming around.

"Well, this is just like Agrabah," said Sora. Ariel gave him a confused look.

"Where?"

"It's where Aladdin's from." Ariel's eyes widened and she turned to Aladdin.

"These things showed up in your home too?"

"Uh yeah," replied Aladdin. _"I probably shouldn't mention that it was in the middle of a desert though."_

"There still seem to be some people here though," observed Sora.

"Yeah, we lost a lot of people when those things first showed up," said Ariel. "But now most people just stay inside their homes. The only people who go outside are guards and Daddy."

"You go outside too," Goofy pointed out. Ariel chuckled.

"Yeah, that's true. I don't really like being cooped up inside." And then a bunch of Heartless showed up. These were not Sea Neons or Search Ghosts though. These looked sort of like scuba divers in green armor with stretched helmets that had fins and propellers on the end, metal tridents, and the Heartless crest on their chests.

"_Screwdrivers. Use propellers to swim forward with extra thrust…That might be a problem. We're still having some trouble getting used to fighting underwater."_ Then the Heartless attacked. Fortunately, the guards quickly rushed in and parried most of the Heartless. Sora and Aladdin were also able to parry the Screwdrivers that attacked them. Goofy managed to position himself so that the trident of the Screwdriver attacking him hit his shield. Donald froze his before it reached him. Ariel was surrounded by guards and looked a little embarrassed. The guards quickly took care of the Screwdrivers near them. Sora, Goofy, and Aladdin were also able to quickly take out the Screwdrivers that had tried to attack them. Then the guards turned towards Ariel.

"Your highness, are you all right?" asked one of the guards. The boys' eyes widened. The guard certainly couldn't mean them, so that left…

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Ariel. "Thanks for your help."

"You should head back to the palace," said the same guard. "King Triton is worried about you."

"We were just heading there," said Sebastian.

"Be very careful. If any of those monsters show up while you're swimming to the palace, just keep swimming. King Triton will notice you entering and destroy the monsters." The group started swimming towards a magnificent looking giant spike-conch. "Hey! You! With the shoulder!" Sora looked back.

"Huh?"

"Get that patched up before you start attracting sharks!" Sora blinked but nodded and they continued swimming.

"What did he mean by that? It stings a little, but that's just because we're underwater."

"Actually, the smell's getting stronger," said Aladdin. "I think you must have reopened it a little."

"But we just got it patched up!" complained Donald.

"There's no time to fix it up. We'll just have to deal with any sharks we run into," said Sora matter-of-factly.

"Are you serious? !" shouted Sebastian.

"That's really dangerous!" said Flounder.

"You should really reconsider!" added Ariel.

"I think we'll be okay." As if to jinx Sora, more Screwdrivers appeared. _"Oh great."_

"Hurry!" Ariel practically shot off. Fortunately, it wasn't difficult to accomplish that, and the boys stayed right behind her, although Sora did consider staying behind. He decided not to since he was still wasn't used to fighting underwater. The Heartless followed them into the palace, and got zapped by electricity. Oddly enough, the mer-folks weren't electrocuted by it at all.

"That was too close." Everyone turned to see who said that and saw a large merman with a crown, long white hair, a long white beard, a gold trident, and a green tail. "As long as I have my trident, I will not tolerate those creatures inside this palace."

"Daddy!" Ariel swam up to the man. Looks like this was King Triton…as if that wasn't obvious before. King Triton let out a sigh of relief when he saw Ariel.

"Oh, Ariel…" His expression suddenly became sterner. "When will you listen? It's dangerous out there!" Ariel winced.

"But-"

"Strange creatures lurk outside." Triton was using a tone that said she was not to argue with him. There was an uncomfortable silence before Sebastian cleared his throat.

"Behold! You swim before the ruler of the seas, his majesty, King Triton!" Said king eyed the unfamiliar people before him.

"And who are they?"

"They helped us fight off those creatures," said Ariel.

"They don't look familiar. I know the faces of all of Atlantica's inhabitants, and I certainly don't recognize you four."

"We're from an ocean very far from here," said Sora.

"Yeah, we came to find the k-" Goofy was cut off when Sora slapped his hand over his mouth. Donald palmed his face and shook his head, exasperated, while Aladdin just chuckled and sweatdropped, glad he hadn't been the one to say something to give them away. King Triton gave them a suspicious look.

"The what?"

"We're looking for a couple of close friends of mine, but one of them did something awful to a friend of Aladdin's so we don't want to involve anyone else if we can help it." Sora knows how to lie. The trick is to slip in little truths to make it more believable. Ariel seemed to believe it if the sympathetic look on her face meant anything. King Triton didn't look that convinced.

"Well, there is no one with a past like that here. You'll just have to search elsewhere." Ariel looked at her father in shock.

"But Daddy-"

"Ariel! I think you should stop!" warned Sebastian. It seemed to be too late though. King Triton gave her a look that said Ariel was not to disobey him or else.

"You are not to leave this palace. Do you understand?" Ariel frowned, clenching her hands and then swam off, shortly followed by Flounder. The boys quickly followed, not wanting to be stuck alone with a grumpy King Triton. King Triton sighed as they swam off and sat on his throne, stroking his beard. "Perhaps I'm being too strict…" He sighed again. "I just want what's best for her."

"Of course your majesty, but I have to admit…I'm quite curious about these people they're looking for. Earlier Sora just said that they're a boy with silver hair and a girl with red hair."

"That does not concern us Sebastian," said Triton, giving the crab a stern look. "Now, have you anything to report about these creatures?" Sebastian nodded.

"It's just as you expected, your majesty. They're coming from Ursula's Grotto." Triton slammed his fist on his throne's arm.

"I knew it. That sea witch is up to no good again." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I see exile from the palace has taught her nothing." Sebastian nodded while crossing his claws.

"Yes, she poses serious danger." Triton gave the crab a look.

"And I told you to keep Ariel away from such danger, did I not?" Sebastian's eyes widened, and if it had been possible, he would have been sweating nervously.

"Your majesty, uh, I-" Triton raised his hand and cut Sebastian off.

"Just go find Ariel and make sure she doesn't try to investigate anything she shouldn't."

Outside the palace, Ariel was talking to her new friends about her daddy's overprotective nature.

"-and it was probably a bad idea, but it's not like anything terrible happened!"

It was a long monologue…The boys, Flounder included, were staring at her.

"Did that really happen?" asked Donald.

"Yeah, it was really weird…" said Flounder.

"Sounds like the He-monsters aren't the weirdest things you've run into," said Aladdin. Ariel nodded.

"Yeah, but these are a lot more dangerous…"

"Well, we'll be seeing you around Ariel," said Sora. Ariel blinked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"We still need to find my friends, and we can't do that if we stay here," explained Sora. Ariel put her hands on her hips.

"Oh no, you're not leaving me behind," she said. Flounder gulped.

"But Ariel, King Triton said-" Ariel waved off his concern.

"Don't worry Flounder. These guys are really strong. We'll be fine."

"O-okay."

"Besides, I wanna show you guys my grotto." Aladdin cocked his head.

"Your grotto?" Ariel grinned and nodded. "Is there something special about it?"

"It's a surprise. C'mon!" They swam off and out of the city until they reached what appeared to be a pile of rocks. Ariel started pushing the rock.

"It's in a cave?" asked Goofy, slightly confused.

"Yeah, I don't want Daddy to find out about it. Can you give me a hand?" Ariel had managed to move it somewhat, but there was still a ways to go. At least this explained how Ariel had slapped some Heartless so hard. Aladdin and Sora swam over and helped her move it enough so that everyone could swim inside. They're eyes widened when they saw the contents of the cave.

"Wow…" Inside was a collection of items lining the walls. You could barely see the walls because there were so many things. Ariel swam up in front of everyone and spread her arms with a grin on her face.

"Look at all the wonderful things that Flounder and I've collected."

"Did you find them in ships?" asked Aladdin.

"Yeah, I think they're all from the outside world." Ariel looked up. "Someday, I'm going to see what's out there. I want to see what's out there. Does that sound strange?"

"That…" Everyone looked at Sora. "That sounds like Riku, Kairi, and me."

"Oh, so you want to see what's out there too?" Sora nodded absentmindedly. "I'm glad! That means I'm not the only one!" Ariel put her crossed her arms and looked up at the ceiling. Then she looked at the outsiders and grinned. "We should look for them!"

"But King Triton said they weren't here!" said Flounder.

"I know, but he can't have looked everywhere. I bet he didn't look in the sunken ship."

"Your father doesn't want you to do anything that might get you hurt though…" said Sora.

"Oh, he treats me like I'm a little girl! He never wants to let me do anything! He just…He just doesn't understand!"

"No, I think this is just his way of protecting you," said Sora. "I think you should listen to him and stay in Atlantica." Ariel looked at him in shock.

"What? ! I can't believe it!" She glared at him and clenched her hands. "Didn't you just say we were thinking alike? ! I'm coming!"

"No you're not! King Triton's right! You shouldn't get involved!" And then Sora swam out much faster than everyone else could swim.

"What was that about?" asked Aladdin. Donald shrugged.

"Who knows?"

"He seemed really nice too." Ariel crossed her arms. "What right does he have to decide what I can and can't do?"

"You know, he sort of has a point," said Flounder. "Those things are pretty dangerous. Maybe we should just stay here Ariel."

"Not you too Flounder!"

"They probably have a good reason for acting like that," said Goofy. "I bet they're just worried about you."

"I can take care of myself," said Ariel. "And why are you trying to defend Sora like that?"

"Sora always has a reason for everything he does."

"We need to find him," said Donald.

"How are we gonna do that?" asked Flounder.

"His shoulder." Everyone turned toward Aladdin. "I can smell the blood leaking from it."

"Oh right, you're a shark merman," said Ariel.

"Well, let's go! We need to find him before he gets himself killed!" said Donald. The five of them swam out to look for Sora, not seeing Sebastian watching them from the ceiling. They also didn't see the two eels swimming after them.

These two eels are called Flotsam and Jetsam. They have a rather odd ability. Anything they see can be viewed by Ursula, the sea witch, and she was watching the little group swim away. "Those impudent fools will never find the keyhole! Especially since they chased off the Keyblade wielder." Ursula hmmed as she watched the mer-people in her orb. "The girl could prove useful, and I've got the Heartless on my side." She laughed. "Triton, my old friend…Your days are numbered!"

"How can one person swim so fast?" muttered Donald.

"He's a dolphin merman," said Ariel. "They're always really strong swimmers. We won't be able to catch him unless he stops swimming. I just hope none of the sharks around here smell his blood."

"What sort of sharks do you have around here?" asked Goofy.

"Really, really big ones!" said Flounder.

"They're usually at least a foot longer than a merman and several times as wide," said Ariel. "I don't think Sora would be able to handle one on his own."

"We should probably hurry then," said Aladdin. And that was when more Sea Neons appeared. "Oh come on!" So, our group had to take care of the Heartless, which took longer than expected.

"You know," said Goofy, "It's really weird not having Sora to fight with us."

"I guess we got used to having him around," said Donald.

"Then let's hurry up and find him!" said Aladdin. He pointed in a seemingly random direction. "He went that way!" It was a little odd, but they didn't have any other way to find Sora so they just followed Aladdin's nose. After a little while, Ariel noticed something.

"Hey, this is the way to the sunken ship I was telling you guys about earlier."

"Really?" asked Goofy. Ariel nodded. "Wow, what a coincidence."

"Do you think that shark's still there?" asked Flounder.

"There's a shark there?" asked Donald.

"Yeah, we've never been able to stay long because of it," said Ariel. Donald's eyes widened.

"Then we better hurry!"

"Let's see if we can get some dolphins to help us," said Ariel. "We'll get there much faster with their help."

Lucky for them, there were some dolphins nearby, and the friendly sea mammals were willing to give them a ride to the ship.

"Ah!" Aladdin covered his nose.

"Something wrong?" asked Ariel

"The scent of blood just got a lot stronger." Everyone's eye widened.

"Please hurry!" urged Ariel. The dolphins sped up slightly, but it wasn't too necessary. The ship came into view a few seconds later.

"Sora!" The merboy was floating near the mast. He seemed to be unconscious and he was bleeding heavily out of the shoulder. Surprisingly, at their shout, he jerked up. Then he grabbed his shoulder as everyone swam up to him."

"Okay, what happened to you?" demanded Donald.

"Heal." Sora used a quick Cure spell. Then he noticed everyone in front of him looked scared. Putting two and two together, Sora quickly spun around and used the Keyblade to keep what appeared to be a great white shark from disemboweling him. "Get lost." Sora jerked the Keyblade so that it went into the shark's mouth and used Blizzara. The spell went into the shark's mouth. The result was ice spikes in the shark's mouth that punctured its skin and made it impossible to close its mouth. It did try a few times though. Then it decided to swim far away from the agitated Keyblader. "I hope there aren't any more of those." He turned back to see some rather shocked mer-people. "Something wrong?"

"What…What was that?" said Ariel. Sora shrugged.

"I just did the first thing that came to mind."

"But that could kill it," said Ariel.

"You're worried about it?" She nodded. "Fine, I won't do that again."

"Sora, why did you r-swim off like that?" asked Goofy. Sora blushed and looked down.

"I…I was jealous." Everyone blinked.

"Huh?" Sora elaborated.

"Ariel, your father really cares about you. I don't get why you're so upset by that."

"Well, have your parents ever told you that there was something you couldn't do without giving you any reason why?"

"I don't have any parents."

Awkward silence.

"Oh, I-I didn't know," said Ariel, blushing in an embarrassed manner.

"I had a father for a little while. He seemed nice, but he turned out to be completely psychotic." Sora sighed. "Now, the closest thing I have to a parent is Kimihiro, and he just gives advice and makes food. He never tries to tell me what I should and shouldn't do because he thinks I should find out for myself, even if I get hurt doing it."

"At least you had a dad. I don't even remember mine!" said Aladdin.

"Really? That's kind of sad," said Sora.

"Okay! Enough of that!" said Donald. "Sora what were you doing here, and what happened to you? !"

"Oh, I was just swimming around. I wasn't really going anywhere. I do that whenever I'm upset. I usually end up somewhere relaxing." Sora paused and looked around. "Actually, this place doesn't look real relaxing. Why'd I come here?"

"Maybe it was because I said we should look for your friends here?" suggested Ariel. Sora frowned and crossed his arms.

"I guess that could be it…"

"What about your shoulder? It looks like something nasty happened to it," said Goofy.

"Oh, that…That was weird. After I got here, I was really upset so I started hitting the ship's mast." The others looked over at the mast and saw that it looked really beat up and was creaking dangerously like it was about to fall over. "I still felt upset so I used some magic on it too. I wasn't using Thunder, but for some reason, my body started using the spell, and I couldn't get it to stop, only I think it was a Thundara spell instead of a Thunder spell. It electrocuted me and blew my shoulder open." Sora sighed and rubbed said body part. "At least it's healed enough that I don't think anyone needs to look at it."

"Wha-Seriously? !" said Donald. "You mean we don't have to go through all that trouble again?"

"Yeah, I heal faster than a normal person."

"Well, now that we're here, why don't we explore a little while?" asked Ariel. "It'll probably be a little while before that shark comes back so this is one of the best chances we'll get." They decided to do this since they still had no leads on the Keyhole. You're probably thinking that they found a bunch of gold and jewels, right? Well, you're wrong. They found some silverware, some metal rigging, a telescope, and a compass. Ariel certainly seemed pleased with the finds.

"Wow, when you look through this, everything looks smaller!" Sora sweatdropped.

"Uh, I think you're looking through the wrong end." Ariel flipped the telescope.

"Now everything's bigger!"

"I was kind of expecting gold and jewels," said Donald.

"What's gold?" asked Ariel. "And jewels?"

"Uh…" Donald wasn't exactly sure how to explain this to her. Lucky for him, Sora had a way.

"They're objects that are very valuable to surface dwellers," explained Sora. "They occur naturally on land, but the only reason you'd find them down here would be if they got dropped or sunk with a ship."

"Oh…Wait. How do you know so much?" Sora said the first thing that came to mind.

"We're experts on surface dwellers."

"Really? ! Wow, you must know so much! What's this little circle thing with the pointy line in it?"

"It's a compass. That line always points north. Sailors use it to see which way is north so they don't get lost."

"What's this hard patchy circle stuff?"

"It looks like they were used to hold a barrel together."

"What's a barrel?"

"It's a wooden container shaped a bit like a cylinder."

"Wow, you do know a lot!"

"You're not gonna ask about the fork?"

"Fork?"

"Yeah, the pronged thing you're holding. People use it to eat food."

"Huh? ! But Scuttle said this is for combing hair!" Sora sweatdropped.

"Well, I guess it does look a bit like a comb…"

"Aladdin, what're ya doing?" asked Goofy. Aladdin was sifting through some boards and rocks.

"I saw something glinting under here…" Aladdin tossed a few things and his face lit up. "Found it!" He held up what looked like a crystal trident.

"That looks like Daddy's trident," said Ariel.

"Wow, what're the chances of that?" mused Goofy.

"Hmm…There is no chance, only hitsuzen." Donald gave Sora an odd look.

"Huh?"

"It's something Kimihiro says. Hitsuzen basically means what is meant to happen will happen. There is a reason for everything."

"So then why did we find that?" said Donald, jerking a thumb at Aladdin and his find. "And why is that the only thing valuable this ship had?"

"There was a rock that looked like that would fit in it," said Goofy.

"Where'd you see that?" asked Donald.

"Ariel's grotto."

"That's right," said Ariel. "I bet that would look nice there. Let's go back." The trip back was fairly normal. That means they ran into Heartless. It's normal for them to run into Heartless when they are traveling, even if they're just going down the street. If they didn't, that wouldn't be normal. Anyway, they got back to Ariel's grotto after dealing with lots of Sea Neons. Ariel swam up to the rock they'd been talking about and put the crystal trident in it.

"That looks really right," said Ariel. "Like it was meant to be here."

"I think you're right," said Sora. "I think some-"

"Ariel! You've disobeyed me again!" Everyone jumped and turned to see a furious King Triton. "I told you not to leave the palace!" Then he saw the crystal trident. His eyes narrowed and he lifted his trident, which started sparking. Ariel's eyes widened.

"Daddy, no!" Triton hit the crystal trident with an energy bolt. It shattered instantly. Ariel looked at the empty indentation in shock for a moment before giving her father an upset look. "How could you?" Then she swam out with Flounder following her. Oddly enough, Triton didn't try to stop her. Instead, he turned to Sora.

"Young man, you're not from another ocean. You're from another world, aren't you?" The boys stared at him in shock.

"You know about that?" asked Sora. It was a bit odd. The only people they've run into that know about the Keyblade outside of Traverse Town are the villains.

"Yes, all those who rule the sea are told about the Keyblade. That includes that outsiders are not to meddle in the affairs of other worlds!"

"Yeah, but the world order is-"

"You have violated this principle!" shouted Triton, cutting Sora off. "The key bearer shatters peace and brings ruin!"

"But Sora's not like that," said Goofy. Triton ignored him and continued his tirade.

"I thank you for saving my daughter, but there is no room in my ocean for you or your key. If you do not leave by the time the sun sets, I will have to destroy you." And with that, he left the grotto.

"What about the Heartless?" asked Aladdin. "Doesn't he want to get rid of them?"

"Yeah, if they reach the Keyhole, everyone's gonna be in big trouble," said Donald.

"I guess he doesn't think that the Heartless can find the Keyhole," said Sora. "…Hey, Goofy…Did you mean what you said? When you said I wouldn't destroy peace and bring ruin?"

"Of course!"

"…Thanks."

Meanwhile, Ariel was crying her eyes out on a well-lit rock. Flounder had left to give her some privacy. This was a bad move on his part. Out from the shadows swam two familiar eels, slowly circling Ariel.

"My, my, the poor child suffers such deep sorrow," said Jetsam…or Flotsam. I can't tell them apart. Let's just say the first eel is Jetsam and the second one is Flotsam.

"What a pity. If only there were something we could do…" said 'Flotsam.'

"Wait. Maybe **she** can be of help," said 'Jetsam.'

"Yes." Flotsam looked at Ariel, who had looked up to watch the two eels and listen to them. "Maybe she can be of some help to you."

Ariel sniffled and wiped her nose. "Who're you talking about?"

"Oh, she would surely help you," said 'Jetsam' as the two eels swam a little bit away from Ariel.

"She'd make all your dreams come true," said 'Flotsam' as the two eels swam in a circle for only a moment before being engulfed in black smoke.

"Ursula can help." The two eels disappeared as Ursula appeared, giving Ariel a smile.

"You called, my dear?"

"You're Ursula?" For a second, Ariel thought about all the warnings she'd received about the sea witch. _"I'll take my chances."_ "I was just wondering if-"

"It's all right; helping others is what I live for." If you've seen _The Little Mermaid_, you'll know it's not that simple, but Ariel doesn't know that. "Let me guess. You wish to see other worlds." Ariel nodded. "That shouldn't be too hard. After all, your new friends came from another world." Ariel blinked.

"What?" Ariel stared at Ursula in shock.

"Of course, they had special help, that key the boy is always carrying around." Ariel looked down in confusion, as if hoping that the answers to all her questions would be written in the sand below.

"They used that to come here from another world?"

"Now, now." Ursula put her hand on Ariel's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Cheer up, sweetie. You have something special too." Ariel looked up in surprise.

"I do?"

"Yes, now listen carefully…" While Ursula was explaining a plan to Ariel, the boys were looking around for the place where they'd first met her.

"Everything around here looks the same," complained Donald.

"Yeah, I'm starting to miss Ariel," said Aladdin. "She'd probably know how to get back there with no problem."

"Maybe we could find Ariel and ask her to show us how to get there," suggested Goofy.

"The only problem with that is that she's probably back at the palace by now," said Sora. Actually, he was right. Ursula and Ariel were back in the palace. Ursula was looking around semi-frantically.

"Now, I'm sure the Keyhole they seek is somewhere in this palace." She looked over at Ariel. "Now, my dear, if you could just help me look around without letting daddy know…I can help you get to those other worlds you long for." Ariel nodded.

Meanwhile, the boys had somehow gotten back to Atlantica.

"How'd we got back here?" asked Donald.

"I guess we were going around in circles," said Goofy, crossing his fins and nodding as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, that's just great," muttered Sora. "If we go to the palace to find Ariel, what do you think the chances of Triton killing us are?" Everyone sighed. This was going to be unpleasant. Still, they wanted to leave sometime soon. The boys headed for the palace. At least none of the guards tried to stop them. Triton must not have told them anything yet. Because of this they were able to get into the palace without being bothered.

"At least things seem to be going our way for once," said Aladdin.

"I don't know," said Sora. "It seems pretty quiet. I'd've thought Triton would do something as soon as we set foot in here." As if on cue, some cackles sounded through the hall just then. The boys shared a look and then swam toward to the throne room as fast as they could.

At that moment, Triton was slumped in his throne and looked like he was about to lose consciousness, Ariel was holding onto his arm like she was afraid he was going to die, and Ursula was in the middle of the room holding Triton's trident and cackling.

"The trident is mine at last!" She gave Ariel a cruel grin. "And I couldn't have done it without your help, my dear." Ariel shut her eyes and shook her head.

"No! I didn't want this!"

"Why not? Aren't you tired of following your dear daddy's orders?" Ursula hmmed as Triton gave her a dirty look. "Oh, that's right. We had a deal didn't we? Time for a little journey." She raised the trident, which was crackling with power. "To the dark world of the Heartless!" Ariel brought up an arm to block the blast, but she was saved by the timely arrival of the two eels.

"We cannot find the Keyhole," said 'Jetsam.'

"The Keyhole is not here," said 'Flotsam.'

Ursula frowned and lowered the trident so she could look at her two lackeys. "What?" And that was when the boys swam in. Ursula grinned at them. "Why, we have company. I'm afraid you're a little late handsome!" And then she and the eels disappeared. Sora just blinked a couple of times.

"Who was that?"

"That was Ursula, the sea witch," said Triton. He didn't sound too good. Ariel gave him a worried look.

"Daddy?"

"The trident." Triton tried to get up, but winced and sat back down. "We must get it back."

"We'll get it," said Sora. "It sounds like we need to deal with that lady anyway." Looks like he'd heard something the others couldn't again.

"Was she talking about the Heartless?" asked Goofy. Sora crossed his arms and nodded.

"I heard something about the Keyhole, so she probably has something to do with the Heartless."

"I'll go too," said Ariel, swimming up to them. "My father's hurt, and it's all my fault. I have to do something!"

"…Okay. We'll probably need help finding where she is anyway," said Sora.

"Yeah, we got lost trying to find our way back to where we met you," said Donald.

"Thank you," said Ariel.

Sebastian suddenly swam up from behind the throne. "I'm right behind you!"

"Where'd you come from?" asked Aladdin.

"I'm a conductor, not a soldier! I wouldn't even slow that witch or her lackeys down!"

"The cauldron." Everyone turned towards King Triton in surprise. They'd been expecting him to protest having Ariel go with them, but it looked like he had accepted that she was going. "Ursula draws power from her cauldron. To defeat Ursula, you must strike her cauldron with magic."

"Got it. Donald and I will take care of that," said Sora.

"I can help too," said Ariel. "In case you need thunder magic. I got some more attack potions."

"Then let's go!" said Donald. With that said, they all left and started following Ariel.

"So, where are we going?" asked Aladdin.

"To the sunken ship we were at earlier," said Ariel.

"There's a path that leads to Ursula's lair there," explained Sebastian. "We sealed it up a while ago, but I know how to open it."

"I hope that shark is gone," muttered Sora. Ariel chewed her lip for a second and then looked over at Sora.

"Hey, Sora…"

"Hm?"

"Are you guys really from another world?" That caught them by surprise.

"How'd you find out about that?" asked Donald.

"Yeah, that's supposed to be a secret," added Goofy.

"Ursula told me. She said you used that key to get here."

"Actually, we used a gummi ship," said Sora.

"Huh?"

"We'll explain later. Or you can ask your dad. He knows about other worlds for some reason."

"He does? How come?" Before anyone could answer her, several Heartless appeared. These looked like giant, green angler fish with the Heartless crest on its underside, along with three Screwdrivers attached to the underbelly by their heads.

"_Aquatanks…and Screwdrivers. Why are there Screwdrivers attached to the big fishes though?"_ Then they had to fight the big fish. Weirdly enough, the Screwdrivers seemed to prefer hanging off the underbelly of the Aquatanks to attacking the mer-people. They only attacked if they were knocked off their Aquatank or the Aquatank was destroyed. Maybe they're similar to Remora. The Aquatanks didn't seem to have any special abilities, but it did take a while to destroy them. They had a lot of stamina.

"Nothing like that has ever shown up," said Ariel.

"Maybe Ursula's summoning more powerful Heartless now," suggested Goofy.

"It did sound like the trident gave her a power boost," added Sora.

"That's because it did!" said Sebastian. "We need to hurry before she summons something really nasty!" They quickly started towards the ship again. Unfortunately, the Heartless had gotten a lot stronger. Along with the Aquatanks, Sheltering Zones, very large versions of Sea Neons, were now appearing. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that they separated into three Sea Neons if they were not killed by magic. And, as if that wasn't enough, Search Ghosts were now appearing regularly. It is very difficult to catch teleporting Heartless when you are not an expert at moving around underwater. Still, the group made it to the ship, and they got a surprise.

"More Heartless!" Ariel reached for a potion.

"Hey, these look like those mushroom things from Monstro," said Aladdin. Ariel gave him a confused look.

"Huh?"

"These Heartless don't attack people," explained Sora. "We're not sure why though."

"All they do is try to get us to hit them with spells," said Donald. "It's really weird."

"Should we ignore them then?" asked Ariel.

"Yes, that would be good," said Sebastian, nodding. "We need to get the trident back as soon as possible…What is your friend doing?" Aladdin was trying to sneak up on one of the White Mushrooms.

"Aladdin!" shouted Sora. This got the White Mushroom to turn around. When it saw Aladdin so close to him, it slapped his hands away, stomped a little, and then disappeared. "We don't have time for this! Wait until later!" Aladdin glowered slightly.

"Fine…" Sebastian quickly swam up to a seemingly random boulder and did something that caused it to roll over to the side. Behind the boulder was a hole.

"This is the way to Ursula's lair." Everyone swam in. The hole turned out to actually be a short tunnel. After swimming for a moment, they found themselves in an eerie looking area with red-tinted rocks and brown seaweed. Unfortunately, there were Heartless here too, mostly Search Ghosts.

"I hope we get there soon," said Ariel. "I'm starting to run low on attack potions…"

"Actually, it should be right around this corner," said Sebastian. As they rounded the corner, he pointed. "There!" It was just another hole in the rock, but Sebastian did seem to know what he was doing. They swam in. Inside was a small, circular, dark cavern. In the center of the cavern was a cauldron filled with an unidentified liquid, which was bubbling ominously.

"_How is that boiling underwater when the water is a fairly cool temperature? Maybe it's something with a much lower boiling point? Wait. Why am I letting this bother me? I've seen more irrational things in the past week than I have in my whole life."_ Yes, I'm aware that it's an odd thing for Sora to think at the moment. He just sometimes notices things that he can't help wondering about. "Where's Ursula?"

"Allow me," said Sebastian. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "Ursula! Show yourself! Your time has come!" A large shell near the ceiling moved slightly. Then several tentacles came out of it, closely followed by Ursula's torso and head. At the same time, Flotsam and Jetsam swam in from off to the side. For some reason, Ursula didn't have the trident with her.

"Well, so you decided to come and reclaim Daddy's trident? How nice of you." Ursula laughed. "Now, I can get rid of you!" The cauldron started crackling.

"Donald, you take care of that. The rest of us will deal with Ursula."

"Right!"

It wasn't going to be that simple though. The two eels swam toward Donald to bite him.

"Fire!" Donald hit one of the eels, and it swam away slightly. As for the other one…

"Hya!" Sora stabbed it. Only, the Keyblade went right through it. There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at Sora and the eel, which seemed to be in its death throes.

"Poopsie!" Everyone looked at Ursula in confusion.

"Poopsie?"

"You'll pay for that!" Sora's eyes widened as he looked back and forth between the dead eel and the sea witch.

"You actually care about those two? !" You can't really blame Sora for being surprised. Most villains don't care about any of their underlings. At all. Seems Ursula is an exception to this though. She was furious. She lifted her arms, and the contents of the cauldron erupted. Everyone backpedaled to avoid getting hit by it.

"Okay, killing her pet eel, not the best idea!" said Aladdin.

"I noticed!" Sora made a note not to kill the other eel, who will simply be called 'Jetsam.' Then he pushed the dead eel off the Keyblade before realizing that Ursula happened to be glaring at him. Then she did some kind of spinning thing. Sora supposed that her tentacles were supposed to hurt him. He wasn't really familiar with underwater fighting styles. He quickly swam out of the way, but was clipped slightly. Surprisingly, the tentacles were able to cut through his skin. Then Ursula tried to grab his face with a hand that was crackling with energy which seemed a little too similar to the trident's.

*Clang!*

Sora had brought the Keyblade up, but Aladdin had managed to swim over and had blocked Ursula's hand with his sword. Then Ariel broke an attack potion over Ursula's head, electrocuting the witch. Meanwhile, Donald was continuing to cast spells on the cauldron. Jetsam was trying to attack him, but Goofy was keeping him from doing so. That would continue for most of the fight.

Back to the main part of the fight. Ursula was still angry. She blasted Aladdin and Ariel with some kind of energy blast. Sora took advantage of this to get a hit in on Ursula's back. Ursula growled and turned back to try and blast Sora…and then the cauldron exploded. It didn't just blast the unidentified liquid everywhere. The actual cauldron exploded and sent shrapnel flying everywhere. Fortunately, the water slowed down the shrapnel somewhat. The only ones in danger of being impaled were the three close to the cauldron. Donald was shielded by Goofy, whose shield was apparently denser than the cauldron shards. Jetsam wasn't so lucky. One of the shards went right through him. He flopped a couple of times as he sunk to the ground, but fell still a second later. Ursula looked at the dead eels and the shattered cauldron. Things were not going in her favor. She growled. "You'll pay for this!" And then she released a bunch of ink. Now, everyone knows that octopus ink makes it hard to see so that an octopus can escape something trying to eat it or catch something to eat. Did you know the ink contains a paralyzing agent though? It's why no one tried to grab Ursula or follow her out.

As the ink cloud subsided and everyone stopped coughing, they looked around. It looked like Sora had the worse injuries, probably because he'd gotten Ursula angry at him in particular. The cuts on his tail weren't that deep though, and a Cure spell was enough to get rid of them.

"So, now what?" asked Aladdin.

"We need to find Ursula!" said Ariel, looking rather determined. "She still has the trident!" She turned to Aladdin. "Can you track her blood?"

"Sorry, all the blood here is drowning hers out." Ariel sighed.

"Gawrsh, how're we gonna find her then?" asked Goofy.

"What I want to know is why Ursula didn't use the trident," said Sora. "It didn't sound like she was planning on giving it to Maleficient." Ariel blinked.

"Who?"

"We'll explain later."

Donald looked at Sebastian. "Any idea where she'd go?" Sebastian shook his head.

"Not a clue. No one knows much about what she does. We just know that this is her lair."

"Hm?" Sora suddenly looked off at the entrance with a confused look on his face.

"Sora?" Goofy swam over to him. "You okay?" Sora didn't answer. He just continued staring with an odd look on his face. Goofy nudged him. Sora jumped slightly.

"Huh?"

"You spaced out," said Aladdin. "What happened there?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Sora turned towards the rest. "I think I know where to find Ursula." Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"How do you know that?" asked Ariel.

"Sometimes, I just know things. It doesn't happen very often, but I think this is one of those times." Everyone gave him disbelieving looks. Sora frowned. "Fine, don't believe me."

"It's not that we don't believe you," said Ariel. "It just seems-" She couldn't seem to find the right words, but Aladdin could.

"Too convenient."

"Well, we have ta look for Ursula either way," said Goofy. "Why not look where Sora wants to look, and if she's not there, we look everywhere else?"

"Well, it's better than nothing," said Sebastian.

"Lead the way then," said Ariel. Sora nodded and quickly swam out and away from Ursula's lair with the others following him. It was odd. Only an hour ago, he'd been wandering around completely loss. Now, he seemed to know exactly where he should be going. Actually, this had happened a few times before. Kimihiro experienced it sometimes too. Sora supposed that whatever it was, it was an Ancient thing.

"Sora, did you mean to kill Jetsam and Flotsam?" Sora looked at Ariel in surprise. Where'd that come from?

"Well, yes and no. I knew we were gonna have to probably take them out, but I wasn't expecting the Keyblade to go through them so easily."

"So you were planning on killing them?"

"Well, they were attacking us, and the whole world is at stake. We don't really have much of a choice."

"Of course we have a choice! We always have a choice!"

"What if it's kill or be killed? That's the sort of situation it is right now. Are you willing to kill to survive, or will you let Ursula kill you?" Ariel looked at him in shock.

"Are you serious? How can you say something like that?"

"It's just how I was raised." That's true. We won't go into that though.

"That must be some family," said Aladdin, sweatdropping.

"You have no idea."

"You should introduce us to your family sometime," said Goofy. Sora gave him a 'WTF' look.

"I, uh, wouldn't recommend that." It just didn't seem like a good idea to introduce the Tsviets to his new friends. Sora tried to think of a way to change the subject. "We need to go through this cave." He pointed at a seemingly random cave. Actually, he did think that they needed to go through the cave.

"The current down there is pretty strong," said Ariel. "I'm not sure we can swim against it."

"Well, has anyone done it before?" asked Sora.

"Some of the guards swim out there to make sure everything is all right."

"Then I think we'll be okay. Just grab onto someone if you have trouble swimming against the current."

Ariel and Sebastian ended up hanging on to Aladdin. Donald was holding on to Goofy. Sora ended up on his own, which was fine by him. They swam through the cave and ended up in some open ocean. Ursula was already there, but she was now the size of a skyscraper, had a yellow coral crown, the trident (also much bigger), and she was grinning at them with sharper teeth.

"_So that's why she didn't use it before,"_ thought Sora.

"You pathetic fools! I rule the seas now!" Then the trident glowed and what looked like a lightning-based spell hit them.

"Okay, I'm gonna attack her now before she does that again." Sora darted up to Ursula and then swam behind her head. He promptly started hitting her with the Keyblade.

"Hey!" Ursula swiped at him with her hand, but he dodged it without much of a problem. Then she turned, but Sora just followed the back of her head as she turned. Seems there was a bit of a disadvantage to being so large. Ursula growled and used another pseudo-thunder attack, only this one was a lot more concentrated and had a shorter range. Since Sora was the only one in the range, he was the only one who got hit.

"Does he usually do things like that?" asked Ariel. Aladdin shrugged.

"I'll just stay back here," said Donald. "Cure!" The spell was for Sora. He was looking a bit fried from the lightning attack.

"We better go help Sora out," said Goofy. He and Aladdin swam forward towards Ursula. Ariel glanced at Sebastian.

"Ariel, don't even think about it." Ariel immediately swam off towards Ursula. Sebastian sighed. "That girl's gonna be the death of me." Donald snickered at the poor crab.

Sora was wondering why the Keyblade wasn't doing as much damage as last time. It was probably because of the trident's power. Oh well, it looked like the only problem he had to deal with at the moment was the electric attack, which he could actually handle fairly well.

"Need some help?" And then Aladdin landed a slash on Ursula's head. Sora grinned.

"What took you?"

"Just watching you a bit." At that point, Ursula let out an angry yell, lifted the trident, and sent a circle of magic energy outward from her, pushing the two males back as Goofy and Ariel swam up.

"Well, that's two attacks to look out for," muttered Sora. Ursula had turned around to face them, and she started sucking in water through her mouth. This pulled the group towards her. They swam against the suction. It wasn't doing any good though. They were still being pulled towards Ursula's mouth. Then Sora got an idea. "Ariel! Drop one of your potions into the water!" Ariel quickly pulled out one of her special potions and dropped it. It was pulled towards Ursula and landed in her mouth. Ursula let out a loud shriek and stopped sucking in water. Ariel and Sora took advantage of this to swim around to the back of her head. Aladdin and Goofy weren't quite fast enough and ended up in front of her face instead. In the distance, Donald sighed.

"Those guys will never learn." Then he quickly cast a Cure spell on everyone. Then Ursula opened her mouth and bit Aladdin and Goofy. Donald winced. "Maybe I should cast an Aero shell on them."

"Ursula can absorb wind magic!" Donald twitched.

"Sora can hear me from all the way over there? !"

"Yes I can!"

"Why are you shouting random stuff Sora?"

"Just making sure Donald doesn't do something he regrets. Hold on a sec." Sora jammed the Keyblade between Ursula's teeth and pried them open so that Aladdin and Goofy could swim out. Then he quickly cast a couple of Cures on them. Then Ursula let loose with another blast of energy that knocked everyone back. Sora growled.

"_At this rate, someone's gonna get hurt. Her skins too tough to cut through easily though, and she's fat enough that I can't sever the arteries or veins in her neck in one blow. Her biggest weakness is electricity, but that's our weakness too. Wait. That's it!"_ "You guys keep her distracted!" He swam around back to the back of Ursula's head. Then he grabbed the chain of the Keyblade and started spinning it around very quickly. When Sora decided it was spinning quickly enough, he let it fly right towards Ursula. It hit her right in the middle of her neck. Ursula let out a loud screech and started trying to grab it. This was a bit difficult for her. Sora swam up to the Keyblade hilt protruding from Ursula's neck and transformed into his Wisdom drive…which didn't look that different from his normal merman form. "Get back now!" Everyone one quickly did. They weren't sure what Sora was planning, but they were worried that it was dangerous. They were right. "Thundara!" Just to remind you, Sora is currently using the Spellbinder Keyblade. This raises his magical power a bit. He's also using his Wisdom drive, which also increases his magical power. This means his Thundara spell was more like a Thundaga spell. Plus, the water they're in is very good for conducting the electric current. This means Sora and Ursula were both hit with the strong spell. Both screamed as the electric current went through their bodies. Then Ursula just fell. Sora probably would've been pulled down with her, but Aladdin grabbed him.

"You okay?" Sora blinked. It looked like the spell had managed to hit Aladdin too. His hair was a bit frizzy.

"Didn't you swim away?" Aladdin chuckled.

"Well, I'm supposed to be resistant to magic, and we were worried that you'd be in bad shape because of what you were going to do."

"Oh." Sora sighed. "I hate fighting underwater." Aladdin laughed as everyone else swam up.

"Why'd you do something so stupid!" shouted Donald. "You nearly killed yourself! And you blew your shoulder open again!"

"Sorry. The way things were going, it didn't look like we were going to be able to do much to her before she killed us."

"Uh, where's the Keyblade?" asked Goofy. Sora pointed down towards where Ursula's body had fallen. Everyone groaned.

"Well, let's go get the trident…and your key," said Ariel. There was an awkward silence.

"Sorry we couldn't tell you," said Goofy. "But it would've been messing with the world border."

"It's order!" Ariel smiled at them.

"It's okay. I don't completely understand what's going on, but I trust you guys. You can explain as soon as we give the trident back to Daddy."

"Before we go look for the trident, can someone please fix my shoulder so I don't attract another shark?" A Cure was quickly used on Sora because, really, how do you argue with that?

The group swam down towards the sea floor. The trident was fairly easy to find, even if it had shrunken down to its original size. The Keyblade was more…troublesome. Ursula's body had turned into some sort of black goo, and they had to go through that to find it. As soon as they found it, they started heading back. They also found a bunch of papers that had Ansem's name and signature on them. Apparently, Ursula had one of the reports on her person, and it was waterproof. As soon as all the pages had been picked up, they started heading towards the palace.

"You know, I don't get why that attack killed Ursula," said Aladdin. "It was more powerful than usual, but it seemed like it would take more to take her out."

"I figured she didn't have any resistance to electrical magic since she lives underwater. So, I used the Keyblade to use the Thundara spell directly on her nervous system, and I tried to make it as strong as possible."

"What's a nervous system?" Actually, both Aladdin and Ariel asked that. Sora sweatdropped.

"_I get the feeling that if those two lived in the same world, they'd be really good friends."_ "It relays messages from body part to body part using electrical signals. If enough of an electrical shock is delivered to a person, it can interfere with the signals and kill them, usually by affecting the heart."

"Why do you even know that?" asked Donald.

"You don't wanna know." And that was the end of all talking until they reached the castle.

Triton seemed to have recovered enough that he could get out of his throne. He still seemed to be favoring his right side slightly though. Ariel swam up to him and handed the trident to him, but couldn't bring herself to look him in the face. "Daddy…I'm so sorry."

"Hey, please don't be angry with Ariel," said Sora. "She just made a mistake." Triton looked at everyone assembled before he looked straight as Ariel.

"It's my fault." Everyone blinked and looked at him in surprise, including Ariel. "You only followed Ursula…because I wouldn't let you follow your heart. And when you found that crystal trident, I lost my temper and destroyed it."

"Oh yeah, the crystal! Why'd you destroy it?" asked Goofy.

"It felt like something was happening when she put it in that indentation." said Sora. "Did that have some sort of special power?" Triton nodded.

"Yes, that trident had the power to reveal this world's Keyhole."

"And you thought Sora would use it to destroy this world!" said Aladdin. Triton nodded.

"That's right. I couldn't allow you to find the Keyhole so I destroyed the crystal trident."

"Oh Daddy…" Triton turned to face Sora.

"Keybearer, I have a request for you."

"What kind of request?"

"Seal the Keyhole." He held his trident out. "My trident also has the power to reveal the Keyhole." Well, that explained why he knows about the other worlds. "Will you do it?"

"Of course!" said Sora.

"That's what we were planning to do from the start," explained Donald.

Ariel took the trident. "Daddy, where is the Keyhole?" Triton chuckled.

"You should know that better than anyone. It's in your grotto." Everyone blinked.

"Wow, what're the chances?" said Aladdin. Sora laughed.

"Hitsuzen…You never know when it's gonna happen."

"Well, we better get going. Flounder's probably there, and I want to tell him about everything that happened," said Ariel. The boys nodded and they all swam out of the palace. Triton turned towards Sebastian.

"Sebastian."

"Yes sir." He swam out following the mer-people that just left. I guess some things never change.

The trip to the grotto was nice and peaceful. Seems beating Ursula has gotten rid of the Heartless, temporarily at least. When they got to the grotto, Flounder was there, swimming around.

"Ariel! Why do you have your dad's trident? ! He'll be angry if he finds out you took it!"

"Don't worry, he's letting me borrow it for a little while." Ariel held it up to the indent in the rock. It glowed for a moment. Then a 2D blue, sparkly square appeared a few feet in front of the rock. There was a keyhole in it. Sora held up the Keyblade, and light gathered at the tip and shot into the Keyhole. A clicking sound echoed through the grotto as the square disappeared.

"Whoa…What was that?" asked Flounder. Everyone quickly explained what had happened when he'd let Ariel have some alone time. Then the boys explained the Heartless, worlds, etc. to the two natives.

"Wow, it sounds amazing," said Ariel.

"Sorry we couldn't tell you before," said Goofy.

"It's okay. Besides, if you can travel to other worlds, maybe I can too one day." Ariel swam up to the ceiling of the grotto and looked up. "So many places I want to see…I know I'll get there someday…I'll find a way. I'm sure of it."

"I'll go with you…as long as there's water," said Flounder. Sora swam up to Ariel.

"Why don't you come with us? We've already got Aladdin." Ariel smiled sadly and shook her head. Sora blinked in surprise. "Why not?"

"You're fighting those monsters. I was able to help you here, but that's only because we're underwater. If we weren't in water, I wouldn't be able to fight, and those potions wouldn't work anymore. I'd just get in the way. Maybe when you find your friends and save the worlds, you can show me some of the other worlds you've been to."

"Hm…" Sora turned to Donald. "Do you have a problem with that?" The duck sighed.

"I guess not…But only if her dad says it's okay! I don't wanna get on his bad side!" Everyone laughed a bit at this.

"We should probably leave soon…" said Aladdin.

"Wait!" Ariel swam over to a seemingly random shelf. Then she swam over to another one and started fiddling around over there. Then she swam over to Sora and presented him with a lump wrapped in paper. "This is for you. I found it a long time ago. It looks like that thing hanging off the end of your weapon."

"It does?" Sora carefully removed the paper and looked at the charm inside. It was a seashell (It looked like a scallop.) with a chain coming off of the smaller end. "Huh, where'd you find this?"

"Near the abyss, in a group of rocks." Sora removed the Spellbinder charm and replaced it with the seashell charm. The Keyblade changed in a flash of light. The Keyblade now had a green handle that looked like a stretched out fish tail fin, blue handles with mermaids drawn on them, a lighter blue shaft in the shape of a jet of water, and a crab at the end of the shaft for the 'teeth' of the key. Ariel's eyes widened in delight. "Wow, that's amazing!" Sora poked the crab a couple of times to make sure it wasn't alive. It wasn't, thank goodness.

"It's called Crabclaw. Fitting."

"So, can we see how you travel to different worlds?" asked Ariel, looking rather excited. Goofy nodded.

"Sure!"

"It's just…we can't figure out how to get back to where we met you," said Aladdin. "Could you take us there?"

"No problem." So the group swam back to where they went, talking about various things along the way. When they reached the clam with the glowing circle in it, they stopped.

"That glowing circle in the clam lets us get back to the ship we use to travel from world to world," explained Sora.

"If you look up in the sky, you might be able to see it," said Goofy. Everyone swam up and broke through the surface of the water. Ariel squinted as she looked into the sky.

"Where is it?"

"It's next to that cloud right there," said Sora, pointing.

"That little dot? No way! How can you ride it?"

"It only looks small 'cause it's so far away," said Goofy.

"Yeah, it's actually a lot bigger!" added Aladdin.

"So, it can fly, like a bird?" The boys nodded. Ariel grinned. "Wow, that's so amazing! I wonder what that's like…" The boys looked at each other and then turned to face Ariel and Flounder.

"Well, we'll be seeing you around," said Sora.

"Yeah, I hope we'll see you again someday," said Ariel. With that, the boys swam underwater and into the circle and disappeared from the world.

"Finally, we have legs again," said Aladdin. "Hey, Abu we're back! You don't have to worry about going to Atlantica anymore!" Abu jumped down from somewhere and landed on Aladdin's shoulder. "There you are! You missed out on a lot. You wouldn't believe some of the things we got to see!"

"Hey, do you wanna read this report with us?" asked Sora. Aladdin blushed.

"I can't read…" The others blinked before they realized that it wasn't that odd. Where they're from, most people know how to read. Where Aladdin's from, only the higher-ups know how to read. Considering that Aladdin was a 'street rat,' it actually made sense that he couldn't read.

"We'll just read out loud for you then," said Sora, turning back to the papers. "'The shadows that crawl beneath the castle…Are they the people who lost their hearts, or incarnations of darkness? Or something entirely beyond my imagination?

"'All my knowledge has provided no answer. One thing I am sure of is that they are entirely devoid of emotion. Perhaps further study will unlock the mysteries of the heart.

"'Fortunately, there is no shortage of test samples. They are multiplying underground even as I write this report. They still need a name. Those who lack hearts…I will call them the Heartless.'" There was silence as Sora finished reading. "Was Ansem experimenting with the Heartless? That's the impression I'm getting from this report…"

"This didn't tell us anything," muttered Donald.

"That just means we need to find more of the reports," said Goofy.

"So, we'll be going to more worlds?" asked Aladdin. Goofy nodded. "Great, more places to look for Jasmine!"

"We're gonna have to backtrack," said Sora completely out of the blue.

"How come?" Sora pointed out the gummi ship window. Outside were hordes upon hordes of Heartless ships.

"…"

"…"

"…Yeah, let's go the other way."

They promptly turned the gummi ship around and warped to Agrabah.

**-end of chapter-**

I never want to write underwater fight scenes again. Ever! Those were hard! I hope none of the new Kingdom Hearts games include turning into mer-folks and fighting underwater.

A sand shark is the only thing I could think of for Aladdin. It did come in handy though. Sharks are very good at smelling blood, and that's probably the only reason the group was able to find Sora so quickly.

Water conducts electricity. I always wondered why using Thunder in Atlantica didn't do anything weird. Given, maybe the fact that it's magic might prevent this, but still…

I seriously think that shark you have to fight is a great white shark.

Sora has daddy issues. You'll see why eventually.

Due to the fact that Kimihiro ended up getting hurt whenever he learned an important lesson, he's developed a sort of tough love complex. He will fuss over you, but he won't stop you from doing something dangerous. That way, you'll learn first-hand why it's dangerous and won't try it again.

Contrary to popular belief, sunken ships don't always have gold and treasure in them. You're more likely to find stuff that Ariel would like to collect.

Aladdin seems to have kleptomania. It's probably because he's had to steal to survive since he was very young…I shudder to think what will happen if he and Yuffie ever team up.

The only reason Sora had so much trouble with Ursula is because he isn't used to fighting underwater. If it had been on land, it wouldn't have been so bad. When he gets back to Destiny Islands, Seren will probably find a way to remedy this.

Can you guess what Ariel used as wrapping paper?

On a side note, Kimihiro got his glasses back in the Xxxholic manga. I'm glad. I think he looks better with them.

This is the last 'What about the rest?' omake. I'm out of Tsviets. I may do some follow ups though…

**Omake: What about the rest? Part XI**

Nero blinked several times. A wave of darkness had gone sweeping over the islands and picked him up before he had time to react. He had an understandable reaction: He let out a loud swear. Usually, he reacts better than that. Something must've caused the darkness growing on the islands to speed up and get a lot stronger. Nero looked around. He was in the middle of a deserted wasteland. The only living thing was a Wutain man with a topknot, a white robe, and a katana who was looking at Nero suspiciously. Nero was used to it. When you wear a straitjacket and muzzle every day, have metal wings, and regularly teleport using darkness, people give you odd looks. Nero just went up to the man. "Where am I?'

The man paused and looked around. Then he looked straight at Nero…and shrugged. "Truthfully, I do not know."

"You're lost?"

"No."

"You just said you don't know where you are."

"I have no set destination so I do not need to know where I am." It sort of made sense.

"I don't suppose you know what world this is."

"Earth."

"Wonderful, I was transported to another world. Now I have to find the others, and they're probably all on different worlds."

"Are you a servant of Aku?" Nero gave the man an odd look.

"What?" The man pointed at the wisps of darkness circling Nero.

"You seem to be a very dark person, you likely have dark powers, and you appeared out of nowhere. Usuallly, that means you have something to do with Aku."

"I have no idea what an 'Aku' is. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find the other Tsviets." Nero took his arms out of their bindings.

"Wait!" Nero twitched.

"Now what?"

"Do your powers allow you to travel through time?"

That was unexpected. "No."

"Do you have any knowledge of traveling through time?"

"No." The man sighed.

"I see. Well, I hope you find what you seek, just as I hope to find what I seek." With that, the odd Wutain man continued on his way. Nero raised an eyebrow.

"Odd man." Then he disappeared in a swirl of darkness, making it seem like he was never there.


	15. Chapter 15

I am sorry this took so long. School took a lot more work than I thought it would. On a side note, never take three labs at once. It's just not a good idea.

I got Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days. I beat within a couple of months. That's actually the fastest I've ever beaten a Kingdom Hearts game. Something usually happens that makes it take several months for me to beat them, liking getting stuck on a boss coughXaldincough or accidentally erasing my file when I'm close to the end…

Sora is gonna be in a pissy mood this chapter, just to warn you. Still only own the idea.

**-I figured out line breaks! (See below)-**

After the boys warped to Agrabah, they decided to get some sleep while Chip and Dale piloted to the next world. Only thing is they woke up in Monstro's mouth. Again. So they had to get Monstro to throw them up. Again. It was still as nasty as last time. Afterwards, they decided to never sleep while traveling in the gummi ship again. Goofy and Donald spent the remainder of the trip driving the ship. Sora decided to teach Aladdin to read. Given, English and Arabic have different written symbols, but Sora figured that if they could understand each other when that shouldn't be possible, then it can't be much of a problem.

"We're at the next world. You guys should come to the cockpit," said Donald over the intercom.

"I think you're really gonna like it!" said Goofy. The two boys and the monkey went up to the cockpit and looked out the window. This world…looked like a jack-o-lantern with a bunch of creepy looking buildings on it.

"That's a world?" asked Aladdin, incredulously. He had a pretty good point. The other worlds had some kind of landscape on them. This one just looked like a pumpkin someone had stuck a bunch of buildings into.

"It sort of reminds me of Halloween," mused Sora. "Does this world really like Halloween or something?"

"We don't have much information on it," said Chip. "Just that the inhabitants seem to be monsters."

*Clang!*

"Not again!" Upon hearing the word 'monster,' Abu had jumped into the vents again. Aladdin sighed and shook his head. "Abu…What am I gonna do with you?"

"What sort of monsters are there?" asked Sora.

"Oh, all kinds of monsters," said Dale. "I don't think there are any humans there. You'll probably have to have Donald transform you again."

"Are there any monsters that eat monkeys?" asked Aladdin.

"It wouldn't surprise me," said Sora. "They probably have werewolves, and I bet they eat small animals."

"You're not helping!" Aladdin sighed. "Guess Abu's staying here again…"

The boys beamed down to the new world, which was called Halloween Town, quite fitting really.

"Hey, what's wrong with my eye?" asked Sora.

"Whoa," said Aladdin. He looked the same, just a bit darker and grainy.

"Wow, what's Sora supposed to be?" asked Goofy. He seemed to be some kind of Frankenstein's monster. There was a black…pointy thing on the end of his snout with a glowing jack-o-lantern at the end as his nose, his ears and hair were ragged, his hat had been replaced with a giant screw, the iris in his left eye had turned red, his right eye just had a swirl in it (Maybe Donald used Sora's eyes as inspiration?), he had a faded red shirt on, a ragged yellow jacket with brown patches, patchy pants made of two different shades of denim, suspenders, and shoes with open ends so that you could see his clawed toes. His gloves were gone so you could see that his fingers were clawed too. His overall appearance had a darker hue, although it also seemed paler. Maybe this world just causes people to appear shadowy when they come here.

"He was supposed to be a vampire. I don't know why that's there though," said Donald pointing at Sora. Donald was a mummy, with bandages wrapped around his body almost everywhere. The only places the bandages weren't wrapped were his bill, the ends of his feet, his stomach area, and part of his right arm. Oddly enough, those last two places didn't have anything there under the bandages. Some tail feathers were sticking out of the bandages, along with some feathers on Donald's forehead. Also, the bandages around his face were wrapped so that he seemed to be glaring perpetually.

"You messed up on me?" Sora looked down. He had black pointy shoes with silver straps, black socks and red leather straps wrapped around them (That's what it looked like to Sora anyway.), odd black shorts, black belt, black lace-up shirt, black jacket with a collar, that strap for the Keyblade, the chain with the charms on it, white clawed gloves, some sort of ragged white cape or something similar, and his crown necklace was no longer a necklace. Now the crown seemed to be a clasp for the cape, and it had little silver bat wings. Sora decided that his clothes weren't causing the reactions and felt his face a bit. He had fangs. Made sense. Sora's hands went a bit higher up on his face and felt something over his right eye. "Did you do something to my eye?" Sora took off the patch and looked at it. It was quite large. It probably covered part of his head as well as his eye. It was red with little horns, a green eye, a spiral eye, and a jagged grin. Maybe it was just a mask that he'd been wearing a bit differently. That was almost everything, although Sora couldn't see that there was a rather ominous shadow over his eyes. There weren't any reflective surfaces nearby for him to look into. Sora realized something. "I still can't see out of this eye!"

"Put it back on!" The other three chorused. Sora looked at his friends, who looked creeped out, and a bit grossed out.

"Huh?"

"Just put it back!" Sora did so, and felt his right arm brush against…something. Sora froze and slowly turned his head to the right. Unfortunately, since his right eye wasn't working right now, all he could see was something black…and feathery. Sora grabbed it, noted that he could feel that it had been grabbed, and pulled it out in front of him so that he could get a good look. It was a large black-feathered wing.

Sora twitched and glanced on his other side to make sure that this wasn't just part of the costume, but that side was bare. Instantly, a large amount of killing intent started coming from the little vampire. "Donald…" Said duck started sweating nervously. "Change me back right now."

"But this world-"

"I don't care. I'm not walking around with this thing."

"Uh, erm…" Sora pulled his daggers out from their hiding place. Looks like Donald had remembered them this time. Fortunately for the magician, before Sora could use them, two walking corpses happened to walk by. One was a rather obese woman in a floral dress. The other was an obese kid in a black and white striped shirt and black shorts. His eyes were sewn shut. They saw the boys standing there.

"Oh, are you practicing for Halloween?" asked the woman.

"Uh, yeah," said Aladdin. It looked like Sora was about to try and kill Donald to him.

"It looks quite convincing! I'm sure it'll be quite popular, but if you don't hurry, you'll miss the announcement at the town square," continued the woman. Aladdin was a bit confused. Was stuff like this normal here?

"Jack's showing us his idea for this Halloween!" said the kid. He seemed really excited.

"Well, we'll be going in a second," said Aladdin. "We just…have to clean up a bit first."

"See you there then," said the woman. Then the two walking corpses continued on their way. Aladdin waved.

"Yeah, see ya!" As soon as the two were out of sight, Aladdin dropped the act and he and Goofy grabbed Sora's arms to keep him from attacking Donald. "Don't kill him! Don't kill him!"

"I won't as long as he changes me back!"

"But Sora, the people here already saw what you look like," said Goofy. "If you show up looking different, they'll know something's up." Sora froze. He couldn't really argue with that. "Besides, Donald didn't mean to give you a wing, right?" Donald just nodded mutely. He'd meant to give Sora two little bat wings since he's a vampire. Why he got one big wing with feathers instead was a mystery. "We'll just finish up as soon as we can and leave, okay?" Sora looked like he was considering it for several moments. Then he broke out of their hold, jammed the daggers back into their sheaths, folded up his wing, and walked off around the corner with a huff. Goofy and Aladdin let out a sigh of relief.

"Man, am I glad you talked some sense into Sora," said Aladdin. "I thought he was gonna kill Donald for a second there!"

"You okay Donald?" asked Goofy. At first, Donald did nothing. Then he fell over in a dead faint. That had just been too much for him. Aladdin and Goofy sweatdropped. They didn't have time to try and wake him up, so Goofy picked up Donald, and he and Aladdin walked around the corner just in time to see Sora walk into a lamp post. Aladdin snickered.

"Did you just walk into a pole?" Sora glared at the Arabian.

"Having only one eye throws off depth perception." Sora continued walking.

"Is it just me, or is he walking a bit funny?" whispered Aladdin. Goofy cocked his head and took a moment to watch Sora walk.

"I think that wing is messing with Sora's balance."

"I can still hear you." Notice that Sora isn't denying it. They reached the town square in a few minutes. There was a crowd of all sorts of strange creatures gathered around.

"Wow, this is nuts…" muttered Aladdin.

"Hey, Donald, wake up! You gotta see this!" Goofy shook the mummy enough to wake him up.

"Huh?"

"Look at these guys!" Goofy pointed at all the monsters. Donald's eyes widened and he made an odd squawking noise. Sora just had his arms crossed with a scary glare on his face. No one seemed bothered by this though. Then a bunch of Search Ghosts suddenly appeared. The boys quickly pulled out their weapons, but then the Heartless started dancing. Of course, this confused the boys. Why would Heartless just start dancing? The townsfolk seemed pleased though. They were clapping and shouting encouragements. Then a funny looking man in a top hat with a ribbon that said 'mayor' stepped up next to a creepy looking fountain with green water coming out of it. He lifted up a megaphone to his mouth.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please!" Everyone looked over at the man. "Allow me to introduce the master of terror, the king of nightmares, Jack Skellington!" He made a grand wave at the fountain, and a very tall, very skinny skeleton in a pinstriped suit started rising out of the fountain while the audience applauded. Jack bowed. "Bravo Jack! Bravo!" Does the mayor strike anyone else as a kiss-up? "Those ghosts will be a big hit at this year's Halloween!"

"Thanky you, thank you! But…" Jack got a thoughtful look on his face, which was interesting since he was a skeleton. His skull actually changed shape! "But their movement still needs work. It's not scary enough." He made a scary face and raised his hands in a threatening manner. "I want to strike bone-chilling terror!" Then his face went back to normal. "I'm going to see the doctor." And Jack went off. The mayor turned to the audience.

"And we'll attend to the decorations!" And all the monsters started running around.

"Hey, these guys aren't so bad," said Aladdin.

"I guess they really like Halloween," said Goofy.

"Of course they do!" said Donald. "They're a bunch of monsters!"

"So, what are we supposed to be anyway?" asked Aladdin. "I mean, I look about the same…"

"Sora was supposed to be a vampire," said Donald, pointing at the Tsviet, who was still in the same position as when they got there. "I think he still is, but I meant to give him little ornamental bat wings, not…that." Sora gave a warning growl, and Donald wisely decided to move on. "I'm an Egyptian style mummy. Goofy's based on Frankenstein's monster, and you're a sand golem."

"Oh…What exactly are all those?" Donald made an irritated sound and palmed his face.

"A vampire is a reanimated corpse that drinks blood, an Egyptian style mummy is a dead body that has been preserved and wrapped in bandages, Frankenstein's monster is made out of body parts sewn together and reanimated, and a sand golem is a monster made out of sand." Aladdin made a disgusted face at the first three. When Donald explained what he was, Aladdin got an odd look on his face and stuck his hand into his stomach…and pulled out a handful of sand.

"Well, that's a weird feeling…"

"Are we gonna go see the doctor too?" asked Goofy. Well, he had a point. They didn't have any leads, but maybe the 'doctor' had something to do with the dancing Heartless.

"I'm not going," said Sora. That got him some odd looks. So far, he's been willing to go pretty much anywhere.

"Why?" asked Goofy.

"I hate doctors!" It was true. Most of the Tsviets hate doctors. The exceptions are Weiss, Kimihiro, Seren, and Chris, for varying reasons. It's all Hojo's fault. That man has given so many people doctor and needle phobias…

"Oh, come on. It's not like you're actually seeing him for something," said Donald.

"No, in this town, it's probably some sort of mad scientist." Sora's right, but that's not the point.

"Don't you wanna see the Heartless dance?" Goofy and Donald gave Aladdin a weird look. "What? I think it sounds amusing."

"You have a weird sense of humor," said Donald. Aladdin shrugged. Then he suddenly grabbed Sora's crown necklace and made a break for it.

"Hey!" Sora gave chase. Fortunately for Aladdin, the missing eye and new wing threw Sora off enough that he couldn't run at full speed without falling over. Unfortuantely, he was still a bit faster than Aladdin, and tackled him outside the gates of a particularly creepy looking house. He scowled at Aladdin and grabbed the charm. "Don't ever do that!"

"_Hey, that didn't hurt…Guess it's 'cause I'm made of sand."_ "Right, no stealing your necklace. Got it."

"Hey, you found the doctor's house!" said Goofy. The two blinked and looked at the sign on the gate, which said 'Dr. Finklestein.' Sora twitched.

"You gotta be kidding me."

"Might as well go in since we're here," said Donald. The two anthromorphs walked in through the gates.

"…Could you please get off?" Sora muttered some rather choice words and go up off of Aladdin before leaning against one of the gate posts. Aladdin gave him an odd look. "Aren't you coming?"

"I refuse to go anywhere near a lab." Aladdin shrugged and went inside the gates. He figured Sora could take care of himself. Inside was a foreboding tower. Inside were lots of stairs that Aladdin quickly sprinted up. Donald and Goofy were at the top and peering around a doorframe to watch Jack interact with a pale bald man wearing stereotypical mad scientist clothes and sitting in a wheelchair. For some reason, there was a Search Ghost lying on a gurney.

"Where's Sora?" asked Donald.

"Wouldn't come with me." The wizard sighed and they went back to watching Jack and Dr. Finklestein.

"Maybe the guidance system was damaged in the explosion," said Jack. Of course, the boys didn't know what the two were talking about.

"Nonsense! My devices are always perfect!" Dr. Finklestein seemed pretty sure of himself. Jack scratched his chin in thought before his face lit up.

"I've got it! The Heartless need a heart! Doctor, do you think we could add a heart to the device?"

"Certainly, a heart's not all that complicated." Finklestein wheeled over to a bookshelf, grabbed a book, and started leafing through it until he found what he was looking for. "Now, let's get started." Jack looked at the book over the doctor's shoulder.

"To make a heart, first take a container with a lock…" Finklestein rolled over to a gurney, reached under it, and put what appeared to be a heart with a lock on it on the gurney. Why he had something like that under the gurney is anyone's guess. He looked at the heart for a minute, lifted the top of his head off to scratch his brain (The boys watching were understandably disgusted.), and made an irritated noise.

"We need the key to this thing first!" The boys looked at each other. Key. They all came to the same conclusion.

"Sora!" Jack and Finklestein looked over at the boys.

"Oh, hello there," said Jack. "What are you doing here?" Dr. Finklestein was less pleased to see them.

"You shouldn't eavesdrop when people are having a serious conversation!"

"Now, now, doctor, I'm sure they're just curious about how we're going to fix the Heartless." Jack turned back towards the boys. "Sorry, but it looks like we're a little stuck until we find the key to this container. You might wanna come back later."

"We know someone that can help," said Goofy. Jack visibly brightened.

"You do? That would be marvelous! Where is he?"

"That's the problem…"

A moment later they were outside and trying to convince Sora to come unlock the heart/container.

"No." Unfortunately, Sora's one of the most stubborn people you can find. It was going to be difficult to make him change his mind.

"If they can do this, we won't have to fight the Heartless anymore," said Aladdin

"No."

"How will he unlock it?" asked Jack. Goofy pointed at the Keyblade slung across Sora's back. "Wow, it's so…bright…and colorful. I've never seen anything like it before!" Jack is probably the only resident of Halloweentown who wouldn't be repulsed by the Crabclaw version of the Keyblade.

"Sora, if we can take care of the Heartless, I bet we can find your friends a lot faster," tried Donald.

"No."

"Oh, forget it." Donald took out his wand. "Stop!" The spell appeared over Sora, but it didn't do anything.

"I have a ribbon." All Tsviets are given ribbons. They've developed resistances to lots of status ailments, but there are some things you can't develop a resistance to so they all wear them anyway. They just wear their ribbons under their clothes. Donald was flabbergasted.

"Uh…" Aladdin rolled his eyes.

"Oh forget it." Aladdin then grabbed Sora's mask and ran into Dr. Finklestein's tower.

"Wow, that's really something. I bet you can really scare someone if you take that off without any warning," said Jack. Sora gave him an odd look.

"What?" Jack pulled out a small mirror and handed it to Sora. Sora took a quick look in the mirror. The skin under the mask was blue and rotten, and his eye was completely red, except for the pupil, which was white. _"Why does that look familiar?"_ "I don't really care if half my face is rotten."

"If you don't have that mask I might have trouble turning you back to normal," said Donald. Sora gave him a disbelieving look, let out a string of curses, and then went into the tower. Jack gave Donald a confused look.

"What did you mean by 'back to normal?'"

"Long story. Don't ask." They quickly went back inside and found that Sora had reclaimed his mask and was trying to stay as far away from Finklestein as physically possible. Part of Aladdin's neck was missing, and he looked like he was very glad that he was made out of sand at the moment. Finklestein just looked annoyed.

"He's supposed to unlock this thing?" Finklestein scratched his brain again, grossing out the three from before again. Sora wasn't bothered. Once you've seen the aftermath of one of Rosso's recreational slaughters, very little can disgust you.

"Maybe you should step away from the table," suggested Goofy. "He doesn't like doctors very much." Finklestein muttered something and wheeled away from the gurney. Sora cautiously came over, keeping his eye on Finklestein the whole time. He shoved the Keyblade into the keyhole in the heart, turned it, and backed away back to the wall as soon as the heart started beating.

"So that's a key! Thank you a Sora!" Jack thought for a second. "Why don't you be a part of this year's Halloween?" Sora made a face. He didn't want to be here any longer than necessary.

"What are the Heartless doing here?" asked Sora. Jack looked a bit disappointed at Sora's reaction, but brightened up when he turned towards the Search Ghost.

"Oh, they came to town recently," explained Jack. "What's frustrating is that I can't get them to dance with me. So the doctor and I are trying to improve the guidance system. He's quite a genius!" Jack turned to the 'genius.' "Okay, let's continue doctor. What are the ingredients?"

"Pulse." Jack went over to some drawers and pulled out a frog that was pulsating in a disturbing manner. "Emotion." Jack pulled out a twitching spider. "Terror…Fear." Jack took out a pane of glass and ran his bony fingers down it, making a rather nasty noise. "Hope and despair." Jack pulled out a couple of snakes eating each other's tails. Jack grinned, which looked quite scary.

"Put them all together, and you have a heart!" Jack put the items on the gurney next to the heart. Finklestein pulled over to a lever and pulled it. Electricity started going through the container and all the items that Jack had pulled out. Then the electricity arced into the Search Ghost on another gurney. It started to sit up with its arms held out. Finklestein cackled crazily. Then the electricity stopped and the Search Ghost fell back down onto the gurney. Nothing happened. Jack sighed.

"It failed?" Finklestein frowned and scratched his brain again.

"Maybe we're missing some ingredients. Let's try adding some memory. Sally! Sally!" Whoever Sally was, it looked like she wasn't coming. Finklestein grumbled and closed his head. "Good for nothing girl! Don't know why I bothered creating her!" He turned towards everyone else. "Sally's got the memory we need. See if you can track her down."

"No problem!" said Jack. Then he turned to Sora. "Sora, would you like to come?"

"As long as I don't have to come here again…" Jack blinked.

"You don't like the doctor's tower?"

"No." Jack seemed a little confused but took a second to think before shrugging.

"All right. I don't have any problem with that." They all went down and left the tower. As soon as they left the tower, the mayor came running up to them…only his face was now white and blue and looked rather freaked out.

"Jack! Jack! We have a major crisis!" The boys covered their ears. He was shouting through his megaphone for some reason. "The Heartless are completely out of control! We can't stop them!" The boys, except for Sora, blinked. Jack put his hand to his chin in a thinking pose.

"Hmm…I wonder if our experiment triggered something." He sighed and nodded at the mayor. "Everything will be fine Mayor. You have nothing to worry about." And then a bunch of Search Ghosts appeared around them. Sora twitched.

"I hate doctors." The mayor ran off. Seems the monsters of Halloween Town don't like fighting…

"Hmm…I guess we should do something about them." Except for Jack apparently. I guess as the 'master of terror' he doesn't scare as easily. Sora quickly slashed the head off a Search Ghost. Jack sighed. "It seems like a shame to get rid of them, but if they're so defective that they're attacking people, I guess we don't have a choice." Then he hit one of the Heartless with some sort of electric attack.

"You can use magic?" asked Donald, shocked. Can't blame him. None of the other people they've teamed up with have been able to use magic.

Jack nodded. "Yep! It's a great way to create special effects!" He fired some…fire at a Search Ghost that got too close to him. Aladdin stabbed it while it was distracted. Donald hit a couple with Blizzara spells. Goofy did his spinning move. Sora went to attack a Heartless…and tripped. Donald sweatdropped.

"Are you okay?"

"I hate this wing." Then Sora used a Gravity just to avoid falling on his face again. He could already tell that fighting was gonna be a pain.

"So…Which way to the Graveyard?" asked Aladdin.

"Oh, it's right over there," said Jack, pointing at an iron gate. "Are you new? Most people know where to find it." The boys exchanged some nervous looks before answering.

"Yes."

"Well, welcome. I hope you enjoy living in Halloween Town." Thank goodness Jack is so trusting.

"Actually, we're just passing through," said Aladdin.

"Really?"

"Yeah, we're looking for some friends of ours, and we were just checking to see if they're here," explained Aladdin.

"So you won't be staying then…Well I hope you enjoy your visit." Was it just them, or did Jack seem a bit disappointed?

They went over to the gate and walked through it. Inside, there were graves everywhere. And then really thin, lanky Heartless that looked like mummies appeared.

"_Wight Knights. No special abilities."_ Jack was the first to attack again. It was his long limbs. They let him reach the Heartless very quickly. He used a fire attack on the first one he reached. Sora and Donald also used Fira attacks. Aladdin and Goofy had a bit of a problem. Because of the Wight Knights' long limbs, they could attack from farther away. This made it difficult for people who specialize in close-range combat to get in a hit, but they managed, and the Heartless were all killed. Then a little white ghost thing with a collar and a glowing pumpkin nose flew out of a grave and over to Jack with a bark.

"Zero!" Jack gave the little ghost dog a scratch behind the ears while the boys blinked. Considering the stuff they've seen in this world so far, a ghost dog wasn't that surprising. "Have you seen Sally anywhere?" Zero barked a couple of times and then flew behind a grave.

"Oh, hello. Is Jack here?" A young woman stood up from behind the grave. She appeared to be a living doll. There were stitches all over her body, she had rusty red hair, and was wearing a dress that seemed to be made out of pieces of cloth randomly stitched together. When she saw Jack, she smiled. "You are here! Is something wrong? The Heartless are acting…violent."

"No, just having a little trouble with the guidance system. We'll fix it, and then we'll have the best Halloween ever! All we need now is your memory." Sally looked a little confused.

"'Memory?' Do you mean this?" She pulled out some light blue flowers that looked a bit wilted.

"Yes, that's it!"

"It's a flower," pointed out Sora.

"I think it's a forget-me-not," said Goofy. Well, that would explain why it was 'memory.' Sally handed over the flowers, but she looked nervous and worried.

"Jack…I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time."

"Nothing could beat what I've got planned! Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envision it. Trust me. You're going to love it!"

"I think you should listen to her." Sora suggesting this has nothing to do with the Heartless or helping a mad scientist try to give them a heart. He's just learned that a woman's intuition is very accurate, even if the woman has been genetically modified and is a sociopath. He always tries to listen to a woman's intuition. Jack gave him a disappointed look.

"You don't want to see the Heartless dance?"

"No, I'm just saying it's dangerous to ignore what a woman says." This is true for everyone.

"Well, we won't know unless we try. Let's get back to Dr. Finklestein's." Sora rolled his eyes. Seems Jack was going to be stubborn.

"I should go too," said Sally. "He'll be expecting me to fix his lunch soon." The group, now with the addition of Sally, walked out of the cemetery. After they left, a stone coffin started shaking. This isn't too unusual since it's Halloween Town. Several people here are zombies, and they tend to sleep in coffins and graves. Zombies did not come out of the coffin though. Instead, three kids dressed as a devil, a witch, and a skeleton hopped out. These three are Lock, Shock, and Barrel. They're brats.

"Did you hear that?" asked Barrel.

"Yeah, I sure did!" said Lock. "A heart! What should we do?"

Shock hit them both over the head. "Gosh! You really are stupid! Isn't it obvious?" Barrel raised his hand.

"Tell Oogie Boogie!"

"Right!" The three kids giggled.

Back in the town square, Sora was once again refusing to enter Dr. Finklestein's lab.

"Once was enough. I'm staying out here. Come get me when you're done."

"Well…Then I guess you're a big chicken!" said Donald, trying to egg Sora on.

"Reverse psychology won't work on me. At the most, it will make me angry and try to beat you up." Well, there goes that.

"It's a bit strange," mused Jack. "There's no reason for you to be scared of the doctor, but you are, and you're not bothered by the Heartless attacking you."

"I think I can understand," said Sally. "It would be better if we didn't force him."

"If you say so," said Jack. "Now, let's go give Dr. Finklestein the memory."

A moment later, they were in the lab handing the flowers over to Dr. Finklestein.

"Yes, this is it. Now, just one more ingredient. We need 'surprise' to complete the heart. The mayor should know where it is."

"Where's the mayor?" asked Donald.

"You'll have to figure it out yourself. Sally! Fix me my lunch!" The rag doll sighed and walked off to start cooking.

"So, where do we start looking?" asked Goofy.

"Well, the mayor usually is checking to make sure that the graves are functioning correctly around this time of the year," said Jack.

"Huh?"

"It's how we get to the human world," explained Jack. "Back to the graveyard!"

They walked back to the square and their eyes (including Jack's somehow) bugged out at what they saw.

"What are you doing? !" shouted Donald. There were a bunch of body parts all over the place, Sora had taken off his shirt and jacket, and was trying to tie down his wing using dirty bandages, and some Dalmatian puppies were playing near a lamppost. Sora blinked, looked from the group, to himself, back at the group, and back at himself.

"Is this a trick question?"

"Just put your shirt back on!"

Meanwhile, Lock, Shock, and Barrel were cowering as what appeared to be a humanized cloth bag laughed maniacally. "A heart? That bonehead Jack is really making a heart? Well, I'll be jiggered that works for me! Ooh, when I get my hands on that heart…" Here he paused and looked at his hands, which looked more like elongated sack corners than anything else. There weren't even any fingers. "Well, I've got no hands, but I'm still gonna nab that heart and control the Heartless!" And he laughed some more. Why do villains like laughing so much?

Back with the boys, Jack was observing the puppies. "These furry little things are so different. They're sort of like little playful werewolves." Aladdin gave Donald a meaningful look.

"See, I'm not the only one who doesn't know what they are."

"They look a lot like the ones I found under my house." That got everyone's attention.

"You have more of those?" asked Sora.

"Yes, they eat a lot of bone biscuits."

"...Their parents are looking for them. Can we leave these at your house until later so we can take them with us when we leave?"

"Sure, I don't have a problem with it." The puppies were dropped off at Jack's house, and the boys headed back to the graveyard, and Jack walked over to an ornate grave with a carving of a pair of doors on it. "This is how they work. First you open the doors." He opened the door. "Then you just jump in." Jack did so, and the door closed behind him. He didn't come back out.

"That looks like fun," said Goofy. He promptly opened the door and jumped in after Jack. Sora shrugged and jumped in as well. Aladdin and Donald looked at each other.

"If Sora thinks it's safe, it probably is," pointed out Aladdin. They followed after the two. They ended up in another part of the graveyard. Jack and Sora were already there of course, but so were the mayor and a giant jack-o-lantern. Now, by giant I don't mean a bit bigger than a normal pumpkin. This was the size of a small cottage. Jack seemed to be trying to negotiate with the mayor.

"Ghosts rise from the tombstones. Check the tombstones in the order the ghosts appear. If you get it wrong, you're in for a surprise!" He grinned.

"That sounds easy," said Donald. He walked up to a tombstone and tapped a tombstone. Several ghosts started floating up from the tombstones. When they were done, he tapped a tombstone that the first ghost did not rise from. A ghost popped out right in Donald's face with a screech. Donald jumped back with a squawk and a hand over his heart. Aladdin sweatdropped and laughed nervously.

"Was that the surprise we were supposed to get?"

"No, that was just Rupert," said Jack. The mayor grinned. "I guess it's a different sort of surprise than what we're looking for."

"What if we get the order right?" asked Goofy.

"Did anyone pay attention to that?" asked Donald. Sora calmly walked over to the tombstones and started hitting them in a seemingly random order, but no ghosts came out so it must be the right order. After Sora hit around 15 tombstones, the jack-o-lantern exploded and covered everyone with pumpkin goop and seeds. Aladdin took a handful of the goop, sniffed it, and took a bite of it.

"Hey, this stuff is edible!" No pumpkins in Agrabah. Go figure.

"Was that the surprise we were looking for?" asked Goofy. Jack sighed.

"No…" Then he seemed to notice something. "Oh." He quickly waded over to the empty part of the pumpkin and pulled out a box. "Here it is!" A creepy looking doll suddenly popped out of the top of the box. Looks like it was a jack-in-the-box.

"That's the surprise? !" shouted Donald. He didn't seem surprised.

"Let's just go," muttered Sora. They started back towards Dr. Finklestein's place while killing any Heartless that popped up. They didn't bother to get rid of the pumpkin goo. Once again, Sora refused to go inside and stayed in the square. The doctor didn't seem bothered by the fact the jack-in-the-box was covered in pumpkin goop.

"Yes, this is it. Now I'll be able to get this heart to work." He turned to the gurney and started working on the artificial heart.

After a little while, Finklestein put down his tools and picked up the heart. "There you go! It's sure to work this time!"

"Ya!" Barrel suddenly fell out of nowhere, landed, on the doctor's wheelchair, did something to make it go careening into the wall, and jumped off to the floor. The others' first reaction was to help Finklestein. As they did that, Lock and Shock ran in, grabbed the heart with Barrel, and scampered off before anything could be done. Finklestein growled.

"Not those brats again!" He then muttered some unsavory things that cannot be repeated in case children are reading this.

"Don't worry. We'll get it back," said Jack. They quickly ran down the tower and back to the square where Sora was still waiting.

"Sora! Did you see which way those kids went?" asked Aladdin. Sora gave him a confused look.

"What kids?" Everyone groaned. Looks like they lost them. Jack put his fingers to his mouth and let out a sharp whistle. After a few seconds, they heard some barks and Zero came flying up to them and started sniffing them.

"Zero, find Lock, Shock, and Barrel. They stole something very important, and we need to get it back as quickly as possible!" Zero let out a couple of barks and then flew off in a seemingly random direction. Jack pointed after his pet. "After him!" The boys ran after the spectral dog, which went into the graveyard. The boys took care of any Heartless they happened across while using graves to jump to different areas until Zero pointed to the side and started barking madly. Everyone looked in the direction Zero was pointing and saw Lock, Shock, and Barrel in a walking bathtub going across a tree that was almost completely horizontal.

"Is that a walking bathtub?" asked Sora

"Oh dear, I was afraid of this," said Jack. "We need to hurry."

"Why?" asked Goofy.

"No time! Come on!"

The small group ran over the tree (They happened to find another group of puppies near the base, but they couldn't really bring them along.), and a few moments later saw the bathtub climbing up an odd looking house. Jack groaned. "Oogie." Sora raised an eyebrow.

"Oogie?"

"Yes, Oogie Boogie. He's always trying to take over the town. He thinks that we're too soft in scaring people."

"What's that got to do with stealing the heart?" asked Donald. Jack shrugged.

"Are we going or not?" asked Sora.

"As soon as we find the bridge, we'll go over." When they finally found the bridge, they understood why the bathtub didn't use it. The bridge had rotten boards and rope, and there were three puppies tied to one of the posts. It looked like it would easily snap at any second. Sora cut the puppies' ropes and they ran off. The boys crossed the bridge one at a time as carefully as they could.

"So, which way to this Oogie guy?" asked Aladdin.

"Just keep going up and we'll eventually reach him," said Jack. Then some Heartless showed up. These were new. They were kind of pink-red with horns and wings. They looked like gargoyles.

"_Gargoyles…Can turn into blue flames?"_ Sora wasn't completely sure what that meant. One flew right up to him, and he had to deflect it with his knives. Then it flew far out of range. Actually, they all did that. This meant the boys had to resort to using magic to hit them most of the time. The Gargoyles did dive in to attack pretty often, but they usually turned into blue balls of flames that couldn't really be hurt. It took a little while to get rid of them. "It's gonna take a while to reach Oogie, isn't it?" muttered Sora

"Normally, we'd just need to climb up until we reached him, but if we keep getting attacked by those…it could," said Jack. Everyone sighed.

They kept climbing and kept having to deal with the annoying flying Gargoyles. "Oh, this is the playroom." Everyone gave Jack an odd look. "It's for the children."

"Are there Heartless in there?" asked Sora.

"Probably not." They opened the door and went in. Inside, Lock, Shock, and Barrel were playing keep away…with a toilet plunger. They stopped when they saw the boys come in. Jack gave them a displeased look. "So this is where you were hiding?"

"Hi Jack!" said Lock.

"What'cha doin' here?" asked Shock.

"Oh, I'm sure you know why we're here. Now, what did you do with the heart?"

"We gave it to Oogie already," said Barrel. Shock hit him over the head.

"Don't tell him you dummy." Jack sighed and rubbed…the bridge of his nose? There wasn't really much there.

"You kids…I don't know what to do with you. We better go find Oogie." The three kids jumped up with Shock brandishing the plunger like it was a weapon.

"Not so fast!"

"Yeah!"

"You have to get past us first!"

WHAM! BAM! CRASH! CRISH! FWOOM! You may think that these sounds go with some sort of fight. They don't. That's Sora disabling the kids too quickly for them to react. I know you were expecting a fight, but there's not much three kids can do against a peeved Tsviet, even one suffering from a loss of balance. After about half a minute, the kids were tied up with bandages (probably from earlier) and Sora was calmly twirling one of his knives. "You willing to talk now?" The kids' eyes bugged out. Shock was the first one to react.

"We were just following orders! Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart! It's all Barrel's fault!" Barrel gave her a shocked look. "It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart!"

"Yeah, that's right!" chimed in Lock.

"B-But you guys said-"

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" interrupted Shock. From there, it just degenerated into arguing. Sora sweatdropped. There was no way he was going to be able to take these kids seriously. Jack seemed to be looking for something.

"Ah ha!" He pushed at a spot on the wall, and a section of the wall flipped open. "We can reach Oogie with this!"

"A slide?"

"It's how he gets his food." The boys gave Jack some rather dubious looks. "I know it's not really the best way, but it's the fastest way." Then he jumped down it. Well, they couldn't think of any other way to reach Oogie…especially since their guide had already slid down. They jumped down as well. They landed on some sort of odd roulette wheel just in time to see what appeared to be a humanized sack swallow the artificial heart. Jack just palmed his face and shook his head in exasperation.

"Now, let's see if I can't get their attention," said Oogie. "Oh, Heartless!" Silence. A Gargoyle flapped in from the right. A second later, another Gargoyle flapped in from the left. There was a bit of an awkward pause as Oogie looked at the two Heartless. "This is it?"

"Oh, dear. That means that the experiment was a failure after all…" said Jack, disappointed. Oogie twitched. He did not look happy about this turn of events.

"Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!" And then a bunch of spiked gates shot up blocking the lower level off from the upper level. Well, it would normally.

*FWAP*

Sora jumped over the gate, pulling out his knives while he did so. He slashed at Oogie Boogie. The bag jerked back somewhat and looked at the cut Sora had made. "Huh?" Sora grinned and held up his knives.

"My knives are much better at cutting cloth than the Keyblade." Oogie took a second to digest that. Then he jumped, which caused a shockwave. Sora was knocked back, and part of the gate lowered so that Sora went flying through it. The two Gargoyles flew after him, but Donald and Jack hit them with Fira spells. Then Sora flapped his wing and managed to get back onto the upper level before the gate closed.

"I didn't know Sora could fly," mused Jack.

"Uh, neither did we," said Goofy.

"How is managing to fly straight? I'd imagine that's rather difficult with only one wing," mused Jack.

"Good question," said Donald.

"Well, maybe now he'll stop acting so angry," muttered Aladdin. "I like Sora better when he's in a good mood." Then some spinning blades shot out of the walls and they had to stop talking so that they could evade those.

Meanwhile, Oogie was trying to keep from getting torn apart by Sora. He wasn't doing a very good job. Sora was just too fast, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. "W-wait! Can't we talk this out? !" Sora gave him a disgusted look, then ran in and quickly cut open Oogie. Bugs started pouring out. "My bugs!" Sora gave the walking bag of bugs a look of disbelief. Oogie was shrinking as the bugs poured out. Sora stepped on some of the bugs set the rest on fire.

"I'm done."

*Clang!*

"Us too!" shouted Aladdin.

"Oh…" Jack looked over the burnt bugs. "That's odd. Where's the heart?" Sora shrugged.

"It wasn't there. I don't know what happened to it." Jack sighed.

"Guess I'll have to find some way to ask when he gets back." Everyone gave him an odd look.

"But he looks pretty…well, y'know," pointed out Goofy

"Yes, but if humans are scared of something enough, it'll eventually come back here, and people will always be scared of the Boogey man." Sora looked at him in surprise.

"That was the boogey man?"

"Well, that's what humans called him," said Jack. "I'm not sure how they found out his name though."

"What's the boogey man?" asked Aladdin. Before anyone could explain, the whole house suddenly started shaking. "What's that? !"

"The house is collapsing! We need to get out of here!" shouted Jack.

"Aim at that spot and used Fira!" shouted Sora. The three magic users pointed at a wall and used the spell. "Goofy! Help me ram it!" The two ran and hit the wall, Sora with his left shoulder, Goofy with his shield. This was enough to break through the wall. The boys quickly ran outside and were met with laughter. They looked up and blinked.

"Did he just fuse with his house?" asked Aladdin. That was certainly what it looked like. There was sackcloth wrapped all over the house, and it was being twisted into a vaguely human-like shape. One piece of cloth near the top even had Oogie's face on it, and there was a giant lantern hanging from a 'hand.'

"Hey, what are those? Boils?" asked Sora pointing at a pulsating black and purple sphere that was embedded in the house…Oogie…whatever. "It looks like dark energy."

"Hey, you're right," said Jack. He looked up and around. "I see a few more…He must be drawing power from them!"

"Then if we destroy them, Oogie will die for real," said Sora. He pulled out the Keyblade. "Better use this."

The first sphere wasn't too difficult to take care of. It was right next to them and only took a few hits to destoy.

"You think I'm just gonna let you get rid of my new body? !" Wow, Oogie can still talk. Then more Gargoyles appeared.

"This could make things difficult." Jack suddenly hit his palm with his fist in an 'I got it!' gesture.

"I know! Sora can take care of the spheres since he can fly, and we'll distract the Heartless." The three regular members' eyes widened and looked over at Sora. Sora seemed to be having an internal struggle of sorts. On one hand, he hated this wing, and he had a very good reason for this. On the other hand, this was a battle of life and death. He'd probably survive this, but if Heartless kept coming, one of his friends would probably get hurt.

"_When did I start worrying about what happened to them?"_ Sora gave an annoyed growl and promptly flapped his wing to propel himself up to the next sphere. Now, something to know: Sora does not know how to fly or use the wing. If he had a wing on each side of his body, he'd probably be able to figure it out fairly quickly, but there's a small problem with one wing. Until you figure out how to use it properly, you'll just fly around in circles when you use it. Ask anyone with a wing on one side of their body. They'll tell you that it's completely true. As such, the most Sora could do at the moment was use it to add height to his jumps, change his direction in the air, and increase his momentum. He figured it was enough for this situation though. The Oogie house was only so tall. Sora started hitting the sphere and then felt a burning pain on his wing. He glanced at it and saw that it was on fire. "The heck? !" He cast a Blizzara on his wing. "Where'd that come from?" He knocked away another fireball that tried to hit him. He looked in the direction it came from and saw another fireball come out of the lantern. "Shit." He quickly stabbed behind him, which was enough to finish off the sphere he'd been attacking a moment ago. Then he quickly jumped down to avoid the fireball and made his way over to the next sphere.

"_I guess the others are doing their job. I haven't run into any Gargoyles yet."_ He started slashing the dark orb. A flash of light caught his eye and he had to block another fireball. He growled and quickly finished off the orb. He was feeling at least a couple more of them though. "Oh, screw this." He then activated his Valor Drive, which caused his pumpkin mask to get replaced by some sort of devil mask, although his left pupil still turned red. His clothes looked the same this time. _"There, now I'll be able to finish them off more quickly. That way there's less chance of the guys getting hurt. There's that worry again."_ Sora decided to figure that out later and quickly ran to the next orb. This time he took it out before the fireball hit and then started running along the curve of the house and jumping to orb #5.

"Hey, how'd you do that? !" Sora ignored Oogie and quickly destroyed the orb. He was now fast enough to destroy one before a fireball could reach him. "Cut that out!" Sora snorted and ran to the next orb. "You weren't moving that fast before!" Sora quickly slashed the orb to smithereens. Then he went to the final orb…which seemed to be situated in Oogies left armpit…Gross. "Uh oh." And then Sora took care of the last orb. The effect was instantaneous. The manor started shaking and collapsing. "No, no, no!" And those were Oogie's last words. Sora jumped off and used his wing to slow his descent to the ground, circling slightly due to the one wing. He watched as the building collapsed onto the ground and started crumbling away. A piece of paper fluttered in front of him. Sora grabbed it and looked it over. It was another one of Ansem's reports.

"What I get one each time I kill one of these guys?" Something occurred to him. "Why do they even have these?" He thought about it for a second. It could just be chance. Maybe it was how they'd learned about the Heartless in the first place. Then again…if these people were somehow connected…

Sora was brought out of his musings when he saw the ground where the manor was glowing blue. After a moment, a keyhole shape appeared in the glow. Sora sweatdropped. How had the Keyhole ended up in the same place as the antagonist's house? Still, it was good to know where it was. Sora pointed Crabclaw at it, the beam came out and went into the Keyhole, and the Keyhole and beam faded away as a locking noise was heard.

Sora promptly dropped the rest of the way to the ground. "My, what was that?" Sora looked behind him. The rest of the group was behind him. They looked a little beat up, except for Aladdin, but that was probably because his clothes were made of sand like his body. Jack was the one who had spoken. "I've never seen something like that before." Sora shrugged.

"It's probably nothing. Just something from whatever Oogie did."

"The heart!" Everyone looked at Aladdin. "We were supposed to get it back for that guy!"

"That's it! That's how he pulled all this off! That means it wasn't a complete failure!" said Jack. Then his face fell as he realized what he just said. "He was able to do this because I insisted on making a Heart for the Heartless…This is all my fault."

"You didn't eat it though," said Sora.

"I know, but still…" It looked like Jack was going to need a bit of time to get over it. They quickly made their way to the square, picking up the puppies they had found. Sora once again stayed outside as the others walked up the stairs to Dr. Finklestein's lab. Sally was there with him. Finklestein and Sally turned when they heard the boys entering. Finklestein wheeled over to them.

"Ah, Jack, where's the heart?"

"Oogie ate it." Finklestein raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, he did, did he? And did this have any interesting effects?"

"He summoned a couple of Heartless," said Goofy.

"Then he attacked us, but Sora killed him," continued Aladdin.

"Then he fused with his house and we had to kill him again," finished Donald.

"Hm, it sounds like the experiment was a failure then," said Finklestein. "Good riddance to both of them." That's Finklestein for you. Jack sighed.

"Oh, Sally, why didn't I listen to you? All of this happened because I decided to give the Heartless a heart."

Sally walked over and grasped Jack's hands with her own. "Don't feel bad Jack. You only had good intentions. You couldn't have known Oogie was going to try something like this."

"But still…"

"Oogie was the one who misused the heart, not you." Jack sighed.

"That's true, but what are we going to do about Halloween? The Heartless are still attacking anything that moves!"

"We'll come up with a new plan for Halloween, together." Isn't that touching? The only one who isn't touched is Finklestein, and that's probably because he's going through his book to see what went wrong. Jack took a good look at Sally and then straightened himself up.

"You're right. We won't get anywhere if I'm feeling sorry for myself." There was a sigh of relief. Something was going to happen anyway. It just happened this way. Jack suddenly pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Goofy. "Could you give this to Sora? He gave me an idea that I think will come in handy." That made them raise their eyebrows. What sort of idea could Sora give him? "Come by anytime. I'd love to show you how scary next Halloween is going to be."

"We'll be sure to tell him." With that they left to the sounds of Finklestein complaining about how he couldn't figure out a heart.

Sora was leaning against a wall again while looking at the puppies playing in front of him. He was thinking about how he was starting to worry about the rest of the group. It was odd. He was worried about Kairi, but he'd known her for a while, and she was one of his best friends so there was nothing odd about that. He'd only known these guys for a few days though. _"I must be getting soft."_ Still, he was getting fond of them. Sora wasn't sure if he'd call them friends though. Sora sighed and stretched a bit. He glanced over at the wing and frowned. That was when the rest of the group came out of the tower.

"Okay, we're done," said Aladdin. "You sure you don't wanna say good-bye to Jack and Sally?"

"I'm not going in there."

"Hey, Sora? How come you're so afraid of doctors?" asked Goofy. There was an awkward silence. Sora actually seemed surprised by the question.

"It's, well, I just have had very bad experiences with them. They ruined my life." Sora's face darkened and he gripped his hands tightly enough that his claws cut through the fabric. "It's their fault that everyone changed!" A pumpkin charm hit Sora in the head, making him blink and go back to normal.

"It's a present from Jack," explained Donald. None of them wanted to know what the story was. They had the feeling it was something horrible, and they were right. Sora picked up the charm and looked it over. It was a jack-o-lantern with a black chain coming out of the stem. Curious enough to see what it was, Sora switched it with the Crabclaw charm.

The Keyblade instantly transformed. The first thing that Sora noticed was that Jack's face was on the hilt and his bowtie was apparently the hand guards. The shaft was black and longer than usual with a bat hanging from it as the teeth and the charm hanging off the end. All in all, it looked as gothic as the town.

"Well, time to go," said Goofy. Sora instantly perked up and hurried off to their entry point. Goofy smiled at his accomplishment, and the rest quickly followed to the point of entry.

After they had gotten back on the gummi ship, Sora was stretching his arm and back. "It feels so good to get rid of that wing! And have my right eye back!" He fell onto a seat.

"Anything else we need to do before we set off?" asked Donald. Sora pulled out the paper he'd picked up.

"Oogie dropped an Ansem report. I haven't looked at it yet."

"Well, read it." Sora nodded.

"'I am studying material from the meteors that rained down that fateful night. What a find! The material is foreign to our world. It is elastic to the touch, and when two pieces are combined, they bond easily. None of the records even mention a substance…'"

"Sounds like gummi blocks," mused Donald. Sora and Goofy nodded in agreement. Aladdin rapped at the wall to see if it was elastic.

"'Was it introduced to this world when I opened the door? I wonder how many other such materials drift through the atmosphere of this tiny world…I wish I could soar off and find out! Could there be uncharted worlds up there? My curiosity never ceases to grow.

"'But I should stop speaking of such unrealistic dreams. For now, there is no way to venture outside this world. My people and I are all but prisoners of this tiny place.'" Sora's hands were shaking slightly when he finished reading. Goofy looked at him worriedly.

"Sora?"

"Ansem sounds just like Riku. Riku had been talking like this for a while before the Heartless came."

"So, those two have similar interests?" asked Aladdin. "You think it means anything?"

"What if Ansem did the same thing? What if the door he mentioned led to the heart of his world?" That was a shocking idea. They'd assumed Ansem was a good guy. To suggest that he'd had something to do with the destruction of his world…

"Let's just go to the next world," said Donald. Everyone else just nodded as the gummi ship flew off.

Interesting tidbit: At one point I accidentally called Jack 'Zack.' Makes you wonder how those two would get along…Actually, Zack's technically dead so for all I know he's one of Halloween Town's residents. Hmm…

Sora's wing is due to changes made to him in DEEPGROUND. Donald just inadvertently made it manifest with his magic. It reminds him of certain people he'd rather not think about, which is why he hates it so much.

In case you can't figure out what Sora did in the scene with the torn body parts, he killed a bunch of Wight Knights, stole their bandages, and tried to bind his wing with them. It didn't work.

The fighting scenes are getting hard…Oh well, if it were easy, I wouldn't be able to improve.

Can you figure out why Sora hates doctors? It should be fairly obvious.

You're probably wondering why Sora is refraining from using his Drive forms. There is a reason for this. You'll see what it is soon.

While I was editing this, my Karatedo instructor of 10 years passed away. Please say a prayer for Mr. Abele and his loved ones.

**Omake: He's a Puppy Every Time**

Jack grinned at the town square. "What do you think Sally?" Sally looked around. The square was covered in body parts and organs.

"It is horrible, very terrifying." Sally nodded in approval. "Where did you get the idea?"

"Sora ripped up a few Heartless one time while he was waiting for us outside of the tower. I wish you could've seen it. It was so gruesome!"

"Where did you get all these body parts?" asked Sally.

"Dr. Finklestein lent most of them. A few of the townspeople lent the rest." Jack paused when he noticed one of the residents messing with one of the body parts. "Zack! Cut that out! Someone's going to need that when Halloween is over!" A black werewolf with bright blue eyes looked up with an arm in his mouth.

"But I'm hungry!" Jack dug around in a pocket and pulled out a bone biscuit. The werewolf's eyes lit up. Jack threw it, and Zack dropped the body part and ran after it. Jack let out a sigh of relief.

"It's a good thing he's got such a short attention span."

(AN: I'd just like to say that this is not Zack from Final Fantasy. It's more of an alternate version of him, like how Vexen seems to be some sort of alternate version of Hojo.

**Omake 2: They have the same hair.**

Xigbar and Xaldin stepped out of the dark portal and looked around the world they'd ended up on. It was beautiful, warm, and appeared to be a tropical beach of some kind.

They'd been sent here for a simple reason. The last time Demyx was here, he saw someone wearing clothes that were suspiciously similar to the Keyblade master's. It was suspected that the two were related.

"Well, better get to the village," said Xigbar. "It sounded like the guy was sick. I bet he'll stay in it for as long as possible."

"It would make sense. Let's not dally." The two made their way to the village without any incident, and stuck to the shadows. It wasn't that hard to find the guy. His outfit was making him stick out from the rest of the villagers. At the moment, he wasn't doing anything special, just making something in a pot over a fire. Xigbar sighed.

"Well, this is going to be boring." And then something large and furry hit him and knocked him over onto his back.

"Mugetsu! Down boy!" Xigbar blinked and realized there was a very large fox with nine tails sitting on his chest, growling at him. Xaldin looked like he was about to summon his lances, but Kimihiro pulled Mugetsu off the gun-wielding Nobody. "I am so sorry! I don't know what got into Mugetsu!" The two Nobodies looked the Tsviet over. He was tall, skinny, pale, and had glasses. He didn't look like much of a threat. What they didn't, couldn't know was that Kimihiro was currently reading their minds and knew just what they were thinking. "Are you travelers? I haven't been here for very long, but I don't remember seeing you around."

"Yes, we are," said Xaldin as Xigbar stood back up. "We're just making a short stop on your island."

"Well, you might want to get a change of clothes. You'll probably get heat stroke if you wear so much leather for too long here," said Kimihiro. He cocked his head. "Actually, you look a lot like Lulu. Are you related?" That made Xaldin blink. Where'd that come from? Xigbar tried to picture a female Xaldin and mentally gagged. Kimihiro picked this up and was slightly amused. He must've picked up more from Yuuko than he thought.

"What's going on here?"

"Oh, perfect timing Lulu. Do you know this man? He looks sort of like you." The black mage looked at the dragoon Nobody. The Nobody stared at the mage. Both raised an eyebrow. "Then again, it might just be the hair…" Xigbar looked between the two. Here's what he's thinking.

"_Holy shit! It really is a female Xaldin! And she's hot! That's even wronger than before!"_ At the moment, all he could do was point at the two in shock, which was odd because it was nearly impossible to shock a Nobody that much.

"I've never seen him/her before in my life." They somehow said it at the exact same time. Kimihiro chuckled a bit at this.

"You sure? You two seem to-" He was cut off as he felt a very familiar feeling in his chest. He promptly bent over and coughed up a gunk black glop. "…I think I need to lie down." He hurried over back to the house he was staying in. The two…I'd call them doppelgangers but I don't think that applies when the people are different genders…anyway, the two looked at each other for another moment. Xaldin spoke first.

"This never happened."

"Agreed." Lulu turned on her heel and walked back into the village. Xaldin grabbed the still shocked Xigbar and dragged him through a dark portal.


	16. Chapter 16

Here's chapter number 16!

I'm sorry it took so long to get the next chapter out. I had school, essays, more organic chemistry, writer's block, distractions by new final fantasy games, and other things.

Anyway, this chapter took a while, and it was a bit difficult for me to write.

On a side note, I found out Zack's gonna be in Birth by Sleep, so I want to remind everyone that the Zack in last chapter's omake was an alternate version of Zack. That means that he's a native of Halloween Town and has nothing to do with Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts. The Zack in Birth by Sleep will be a completely different person from the Zack in the omake. I just wanted to make that clear in case I manage to continue this story all the way to Birth by Sleep.

I still only own the plot.

-I think my line breaks aren't working...-

The boys were flying through innerspace again. At the moment, Sora and Goofy were piloting while Donald and Aladdin got some sleep.

"I hope we don't have to change our form on the next world," said Sora. "I'm tired of my body having weird appendages."

"Those sorts of worlds are really unusual," said Goofy. "I don't think we'll see any more of them." A random puppy climbed up onto the anthro's lap. Goofy scratched it behind its ears. "We've sure found a lot of these little guys."

"Yeah, I lost count of how many we've found. How'd two dogs manage to have so many puppies anyway?" Sora took a moment to shoot at some Heartless ships. It was nice that there were fewer ships in this area. It was making it much easier to travel. "I hope we find some sort of clue in this next world…" Then the alarm went off, waking up Donald and Aladdin.

"There's a really big ship approaching!" said Chip. As soon as he said this, the large ship went flying past them.

"That's not a gummi ship," said Sora, staring.

"I think it's a pirate ship," said Goofy. Indeed, it was flying a black flag with a skull and crossbones on it and looked to be an old wooden ship of some kind. None of them were expecting to see something like that.

"Quit gawking! It's turning back around!" shouted Donald. The ship was coming right back at them. For such a large ship, it moved quickly. Sora quickly turned the gummi ship. Actually, he managed to avoid the larger ship when he turned. It's just that the gummi ship wasn't fast enough to outrun the pirate ship, and they got rammed. The gummi ship puttered to a stop.

"That other ship just damaged the thrusters!" shouted Dale. Then a loud clang came from the roof. A second later, several pirates came in.

"All right. You lot come with us, and we won't have to bust you up." The speaker was promptly stabbed in the chest by Sora. The pirate's eyes widened for a moment before he slumped over onto the floor. Sora gave the rest of the pirates a creepy grin.

"Anyone else wanna try?" The pirates looked at their fallen companion and promptly left. "That should scare them off."

"What about him?" asked Aladdin.

"I stabbed him in the heart. We should get rid of the body before it starts to smell bad." Some more noises came from the roof. Sora frowned and looked up. "Are they still there?" Then several Heartless in pirate clothes came into the cockpit. The boys were understandably surprised. _"Pirate…How unoriginal. Sometimes stumble due to their own attack…sounds pretty weak."_ Sora killed a couple of Heartless. Another two came in to replace them. The Tsviet twitched. "Just great…" He wasn't going to give up without a fight. He started attacking the Heartless that came in. The only reason the others didn't help was because the cockpit was very small and there wasn't much room to fight. Sora was on his own for the moment. It didn't seem to be much of a problem though. He was good at killing Heartless. However, a dark portal formed under him, and he fell through it. The portal closed up before anyone could try to follow him.

"So, we need to take care of them now?" asked Aladdin.

"Better leave it to me," said Donald. "My spells don't need much space to be performed."

Back with Sora, he suddenly found himself on a deck with several pirates and Heartless around him. He smirked. "You're trying to take outnumber me? That's not gonna work." Sora ran forward and slit a pirate's neck. He continued on to a Heartless and quickly sliced it up. The Heartless next to it was dealt with the same way. The pirates took a hint and tried to get as far from Sora as possible. The Heartless kept trying to swarm him, and Sora kept killing them with a somewhat crazed grin on his face. Unfortunately for the pirates, Sora ran out of Heartless and simply moved on to the pirates. Sora was quickly covered in blood from slicing open all the bodies. After a few moments, all the pirates were dead. Sora took a look around and scratched the back of his head. "I got carried away…That hasn't happened in a while…I really gotta work on that…"

"And you said I was killing people." Sora's eyes widened and he spun around. Riku was standing in front of the base of the crow's nest.

"Riku!" Sora growled. "You better not hurt Donald, Goofy, or Aladdin!" Riku scoffed.

"Are they really that important? More important than old friends? Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking…" Riku stepped to the side. Sora's eyes widened. "About her."

"Kairi!" His female friend was leaning against the mast with a listless look on her face. She gave no sign that she'd noticed him or anything else.

"That's right. While you were goofing off, I finally found her." Riku smirked. "I don't think you can call me a hypocrite now, especially since you're the one who abandoned her and just got some new friends." Sora glared at Riku.

"That's not what happened! I just couldn't find her! And you are a hypocrite! You're working with the people who put her in this condition in the first place!" Riku narrowed his eyes. What came out of his mouth was the last thing Sora expected to hear.

"Chocobo butt." Sora twitched slightly at the old insult.

"Old man!"

"Fish eyes!"

"Paopu freak!"

"Mama's boy!"

"Kimihiro's a guy you balloon-pants wearing masochist!"

"You haven't grown up at all," said Riku.

"You were the one who started the name calling!"

"Still, at least I didn't kill anyone."

"Hey, I don't kill anyone if they don't threaten me. These guys are pirates. The plunder and kill for a living. Besides, it's not like they're going to turn into a Heartless. They're just dead."

"…You have weird logic." The two stared at each other for a second. Then Sora twirled his daggers, went into Valor form, and dashed towards Riku. Right before he was close enough to hit Riku, he veered to grab Kairi. Sora was not expecting his own shadow to pop up and block him.

"What the *beep*? !" Riku chuckled. Sora frowned. "What did you do? !"

"I've picked up a few tricks." Riku waved his hand, and several of the Pirate Heartless appeared. Sora looked at the Heartless.

"You've really fallen…You gonna try to kill me now?"

"I haven't decided yet. Guess I'll have to see how I feel when I get Kairi her heart back."

Sora chuckled. "Wow, you really are like him. You're willingly becoming a monster simply so you can gain power." Riku's eyebrow twitched at being called a monster.

"Shut up!" Then the piece of floor under Sora disappeared, and the brunette fell through the hole. The boards reappeared before he could try to get out. Riku glowered and glared at Sora's shadow. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"The crew!" Riku turned to look at a stout man with a stocking cap and a striped shirt.

"Oh, Smee, so you were smart enough to stay in the cabin."

"What happened to them? !"

"I warned you that Sora was willing to kill people. They doomed themselves the moment they decided to take him on." Smee wrung his hands a bit before running and knocking on a door.

"Captain! It's terrible! The entire crew! They've been slaughtered!" The door opened and Captain Hook came out. He took a look at the bodies.

"Those idiots couldn't even take out a brat? Worthless the whole lot of them!"

"But Captain, now it's only the two of us."

"Oh, stop you're sniveling. The Heartless are much more useful." Hook summoned several Pirates and turned to the them. "You lot clean up that mess!" The Heartless jumped and ran over to the bodies. "And you!" He turned to Riku. "This is my ship, so I suggest you stop acting like you're in charge."

"Whatever. As long as Sora doesn't get near Kairi, I don't care."

Meanwhile, down in the hold…

"You don't say?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah, it was definitely Kairi. I finally found her."

"Too bad your friend isn't happy to see you," muttered Aladdin. He still doesn't like Riku.

"Yeah, that's true," mused Sora. "I'll just have to find some way to get Kairi away from him…and get my shadow back…" His shadow was still missing. It was probably running around the ship somewhere.

"Sounds great," said Donald. "Now how 'bout getting off me? !" Everyone was in a pile with Donald at the bottom. Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin had been tossed in the hold by some Pirate Heartless. Before they could untangle themselves, Sora had fallen in. Everyone quickly untangled themselves and stood up, making sure nothing was broken.

"So, now what?" asked Aladdin.

"The wood seems normal," said Sora. "We could probably burn a hole in the wall."

"What if that spreads to the rest of the ship?" asked Goofy.

"Everyone would get burnt to a crisp…" Sora sighed. "Guess we need to find another…way…out…" Sora trailed off as he noticed a boy in green floating near the ceiling. Yeah, he knows several people who can fly, but he's aware that most people can't fly so seeing someone who can still surprises him.

"Sora? You okay?" asked Aladdin. The floating boy grinned.

"How ya doin' there?" The other three off-worlders jumped and spun around to see who said that. Their mouths dropped open when they saw who said it. "Looking for a way out?"

"Who're you?" asked Goofy. The boy jabbed his thumb at his chest in a proud manner.

"I'm the answer to your prayers!" The others, sans Goofy, gave him skeptical looks. The boy huffed. "Okay then. Fine. Have it your way."

"Aren't you stuck here too?" asked Aladdin.

The boy shook his head. "No, I'm just waiting for someone." As soon as he said this, a glowing ball of light suddenly came down from the ceiling and started circling him. "Tinker bell! What took you so long?" The ball of light made a tinkling sound. This didn't mean anything to the grounded people, but it seemed to mean something to the boy. "Great job, so you found Wendy?" The ball made more tinkling sounds, which made the boy blink. "Hold on. There was another girl there, too?" A bobbing motion, along with more tinkling. "Are you crazy? ! There's no way I'm gonna leave Wendy there!" The ball gave a distinct impression of being annoyed and displeased. Donald snickered.

"Sounds like somebody's jealous!" The ball of light froze for a second, flew down right in front of Donald, revealing that it was a fairy in a small green dress, and kicked him in the bill. Then she flew back up to the boy while Donald shook his head to clear it. The boy snickered a bit at Donald's misfortune.

"Well, come on Tink. Open the door." Tinkerbell flew down to the door (It was bolted on the other side, which was the only reason Sora hadn't tried opening it.) and started doing something. Sora cleared his throat slightly.

"I'm Sora, and these three are Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin. Who're you?"

"Huh? Formal aren't you? I'm Peter Pan."

"How 'bout a truce until we find those girls Tinker bell was talking about?" Peter shrugged.

"Sure, I don't care." At that point, the door slowly swung open and Tinker bell flew through the door. "Great, she got it! Let's get out of here!" She quickly went back out. There were more of the Pirate Heartless outside. Sora quickly beheaded the one closest to him. Donald cast a Blizzara on a couple of nearby Heartless. Goofy started bashing any that tried to get close to the group. Aladdin and Sora attacked any that got past Goofy. Peter's fighting style was…a bit different. He went zooming up to Hearltess, stabbed them several times with a knife, and flew out of their range when they tried to attack him. It was sort of like the Gargoyles from Halloween town. It didn't take more than a few minutes to get rid of the Heartless.

"Well, it's pretty likely that they know we escaped now," said Sora. "We should be careful how we proceed."

"Eh, you worry too much." Peter took a quick look around and flew over to a door. It took a moment for the others to climb/jump over to where he was. "Sheesh, you guys sure are slow."

"It's because you have less obstacles to get by when you can fly," said Sora.

"How are you flying anyway?" asked Aladdin. "Are you a djinn or something?" Sora snickered while Peter gave Aladdin a confused look.

"A what? I'm just using pixie dust. Anyone can fly with it. I'll show ya." He turned over to Tinkerbell. "Hey, Tink, come over here." She sniffed, turned her back to him, and crossed her arms. "Aw, you haven't cooled off yet? Come on, just give them a little pixie dust. We'll get out of here quicker that way." For a moment, it looked like Tinkerbell was considering not doing it so that it would take them longer to rescue Wendy. Then she started flying over the four grounded boys, sprinkling them with a sparkling gold powder. Peter nodded his head with a smile. "There, now you can fly." Donald promptly tried to fly by flapping his arms (or were they wings?) and landed on his face. Tinkerbell pointed and laughed.

"Okay…" Sora decided to try this later, mostly because his only experience with flying was a prank Ash pulled on him when he was 8. _"We better hurry up. I don't wanna miss them…"_

Speaking of them, Riku was relaying some information to Captain Hook from Maleficient. "What do you mean Wendy's not one of the chosen ones? !" He seemed upset by it. Riku shrugged.

"There are seven, supposedly, and Maleficient says she's not one of them. Leave all the dead weight behind, including her."

"After all the trouble of capturing her?" Captain Hook muttered some words under his breath which will not be repeated here. "Why those seven then? What is Maleficient planning to do with them?"

"Who knows? As long as it means getting Kairi's heart back, I couldn't care less." Hook snorted at Riku's words.

"You're wasting your time. The Heartless have devoured that girl's heart. I'll wager me other hand that it's lost forever."

Riku glared at the pirate captain. "I will find her heart. No matter what…" Fortunately, Smee made an announcement over the tube pipes, which kept an argument from breaking out.

"Uh, captain? The prisoners have escaped. And what's more, Peter Pan is with them."

"What? !" Riku looked on in amusement as the pirate captain proceeded to lose his temper. "Blast that Peter Pan!" He took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. "Alright then. Bring the hostage to me cabin. Hop to it Smee!"

Back with Sora's group, they'd made it to the galley. There were a lot a Shadows running around, and the boys were busy trying to get rid of them.

"You know, I think these Heartless are spawning continuously," said Sora.

"I think you're right," said Donald. "I just saw a couple pop up."

"Maybe we should just go ahead and leave," said Aladdin. Sora nodded. No reason to exhaust themselves here.

"Uh, which way did we come in from?" asked Goofy. Peter jerked his thumb at one of the entrances.

"It was that one." The boys quickly left through the other way in. The Shadows didn't follow, but there were some more Pirates lurking in that hold that they had to take care of before they could do much of anything. _"Is that?"_ Sora looked around. _"It is!"_ Sora ran over to a side room. The others followed him cautiously.

"Hey, what are you doing in there?" asked Peter. "It's just a room. We can't go anywhere from here."

"I felt Kairi's aura from over here," explained Sora. "That means she's nearby."

"Peter?" Everyone looked up through some slats to see a girl in a blue dress looking down at them. Peter's face lit up.

"Wendy! There you are. You hold on. We'll be up there in no time!"

"Hurry, the pirates are coming!"

"No worries! I'll be up there in no time!"

"Hey, Wendy? Is there another girl up there?" asked Sora. Wendy's eyes widened when she saw the blood-covered boy.

"Why are you…" She gulped and looked off to the side. "Well, yes, but she hasn't moved at all. I thought she was asleep, but her eyes are open…" Sora quickly positioned himself so that he was looking in the same direction as Wendy. He couldn't see much, but he did see the fabric of Kairi's skirt, so she must be up there.

"Kairi! Can you hear me? It's me! Sora!" At first it didn't look like she was going to respond, but her hand fell on the slats and a couple of the fingers twitched. Sora grinned happily. It wasn't much of a response, but it was still a response, and that was good. Then there was a gasp from Wendy and someone or something started dragging Kairi away. Sora wasn't going to have this though. He jumped through the slats and landed in the room just in time to see Riku start disappearing into a dark portal with Kairi. Sora sprinted towards them, but his shadow popped up and blocked the way. "Out of my way!" Sora fired a Fire point blank at his shadow's face. It knocked it back a bit, but it was too late. Riku and Kairi were gone. Sora yelled in anger just as his shadow bounced back at him. Sora was angry though. He wanted to take that anger out on anything, and his shadow would do just fine. Sora swung a knife at its neck at the same time it tried to stab him in the neck. Both blocked. Both went low and tried to sever the other's tendons. Both managed to dodge. Sora growled and quickly switched to the Keyblade and started attacking as quickly as he could. "I don't have time for this!" Head, liver, neck, heart, lungs, stomach…the shadow was blocking them all, but it wasn't able to counterattack, which was a good thing. Then a Blizzara hit it in the head, which knocked it off balance just enough for Sora to stab it through the neck and swing the Keyblade upward. The shadow twitched, dissolved into darkness, and reattached itself to Sora's feet. Sora quickly ran out the door. From where he'd shot the Blizarra, Donald huffed.

"What about us?"

"Just help us up there!" shouted Aladdin. The two taller ones, helped Donald get out of the hole. Donald reached down the hole and, with some difficulty, pulled Goofy up through it. Then both pulled Aladdin up through the hole. "What's up with that guy?"

"I bet it's probably 'cause he found Kairi but Riku took her away," said Goofy. "Sora lost her again…"

"I can understand that," said Aladdin, looking down. Then he frowned and looked around. "Hey, what happened to the other guy?" Seems Peter disappeared on them. Well, he had found Wendy.

"Forget him. We better find Sora before he does something dangerous," muttered Donald. These three chose a direction and walked in that direction in hopes of finding Sora.

Sora, meanwhile, was dashing towards the deck. When he reached it, he panted a few times before he yelled out of frustration and punched the deck, shattering the wood and making a large hole.

"You little brat!" shouted Hook. "How dare you damage my ship! That boy just had to leave when you were angry." Sora glared at Hook and turned toward him. "Not another step boy." He pulled out a lantern with a familiar pixie in it. "Or your little friend dies." Sora stopped and frowned.

"_Huh? Why did I stop? She's no friend of mine. I don't care what happens to her. So why…?"_ Sora huffed. _"I'm much faster than him. I'll get to him before he can do anything."_ At that thought, several Pirate Heartless popped up between the two.

"I'm not stupid brat. I know how quickly you can move." Sora swore. "Now, then, tie him up!" Several minutes later, Sora had his hands tied behind his back and was standing in front of the gangplank.

"Hand over the Keyblade, and I'll spare your lives. Be glad I'm merciful, unlike the Heartless. So, which will it be? The Keyblade or the plank?" Sora gave him a disbelieving look.

"You actually expect me to believe that after I killed your crew?"

"Then ye'll be walking the plank?" Sora was about to answer, but paused as his hearing picked up an odd noise.

"What's that noise?"

"Hm?" Sora strained a bit to try and figure out what he was hearing.

"For some reason, I suddenly heard a clock." Hook got a terrified look on his face. "What?"

"It's him! The crocodile that took me hand!" Sora blinked at this and peered over the side of the boat. A crocodile looked up at him, licking its lips.

"Crocodiles can live in the sea?" Hook backed away to the mast quicker than Sora had seen him move before.

"Oh, I can't stay here! Smee! You take care of it and then get us out of here! I can't stand the sight of it!" The pirate captain hung Tinkerbell's lantern on a nail and ran into his cabin. Sora sweatdropped at Hook's reaction. Then again, if this was how he lost his hand, the fear wasn't completely unfounded, but why not shoot it or something?

"Of course, Captain." Smee ambled forward. Sora briefly wondered why this guy was a pirate. "Do you have any last words?"

"You guys are a bunch of wusses."

"Well, if that's how you feel…" Smee quickly started prodding Sora down the plank with a cutlass.

"You better be thankful Tinkerbell," muttered Sora. He took a look at the crocodile. Its jaws were wide open. Well, if he can bring his hands over his head, he might be able to jam them with his Keyblade…

"Sora!" Sora blinked. "Fly Sora! Just believe and you can do it!"

"_Peter?"_ Sora looked down at the crocodile and thought about the flying. Well, why not? _"I can fly. I can fly. I can fly."_ He suddenly thought of Ash, Kimihiro, and Nero. His family. Then he stepped off the plank. Time seemed to slow down as Sora got closer to the crocodile's mouth. Then he zoomed upward just as the crocodile snapped its mouth shut. _"I'm flying!"_ Smee was shocked too. Then Peter flew down and opened Tinkerbell's lantern.

"Thanks Sora!" He flew over and quickly cut through the ropes binding Sora's wrists together. Sora rubbed his wrists and raised an eyebrow at Peter.

"You're still here?"

"What? You thought I'd leave you and Tink here? I just went to get some backup." As soon as Peter said that, several boys dressed as animals and a couple in pajamas came climbing up over the sides of the ship. Smee looked around in a panic, took out a whistle, and blew it. Several Heartless popped up, Pirates, pirates with wings, and pirates fused with ships.

"_Sky Pirates, not that dangerous, strong punches. Battleships, charging attacks, homing energy attacks, bombs, parts of it can be destroyed."_ Sora looked around at his temporary allies. They were all children. _"Should I? I already used a drive today. Well, I can't just let these kids fight a bunch of Heartless. They could get hurt. I can't believe I'm thinking like this."_ Sora transformed into his Wisdom drive and used Gravity to ground some of the flying Heartless. _"Huh, it seems stronger than before…I'll worry later."_ Sora started shooting magic at the Heartless that hadn't been caught by the Gravira. One of the Sky Pirates swung its fist at him, and Sora glided to the side. _"Flying's easier than I thought."_ He hit the sky pirate with a Fira spell and shot it in the head. He spun around and started shooting any Heartless he saw in the head. Then a fireball hit one of the battleships.

"Wow, what did you do Sora?" asked Aladdin.

"Are you flying? !" shouted Donald.

"I'll explain later! There are kids here! Make sure they don't get hurt!"

"Ah, don't worry. They can take care of themselves," said Peter.

"Just being safe!" Sora shot another Heartless in the head. He then used a Thundara spell to stun the flying enemies and whipped up a whirlwind with an Aero spell to gather them in one spot. _"Hey, my Aero spell is stronger too…"_ Sora used Gravira to ground the stunned Heartless. The boys on the ship deck quickly finished them off using daggers.

"I think that's the last of them," said Aladdin. The boys jumped Smee and tied him up.

"We still have to deal with Hook," pointed out Sora, he was starting to breath heavily. _"I can't maintain this form much longer."_

"I'll take care of that," said Peter. He flew down to the door to the cabin and knocked on it.

"Is that you Smee? Did you finish him off?" Peter snickered before talking in a perfect imitation of Smee's voice.

"Aye Captain. He walked the plank. No problems." Several of the boys snickered.

"Good to hear. Is the crocodile gone?"

"Aye!"

"Well, I'll come back out then." Everyone hid as Hook came out. He looked around in confusion for a second before Peter snuck up on him from behind and poked him in the shoulder with his dagger. Hook jumped a good foot in the air while all the boys broke out laughing. Hook growled and spun to glare at Peter.

"P-Peter Pa-blast you!"

"Ready to make a splash, you old codfish? Now it's your turn to walk the plank!"

"I like that plan," agreed Sora.

"I'll not fall so easily!" Hook summoned several more Heartless. Sora and the Lost Boys flew up to take care of the flying Heartless. Goofy, Donald, and Aladdin focused on the ground-bound Heartless. Peter was the one fighting Hook.

"C'mon you old codfish! Can't you do any better?"

"Don't you taunt me boy!" Hook summoned even more Heartless.

"Will you stop egging him on? !" shouted Donald.

"If he summons too many of these, one of those kids could get hurt!" shouted Sora. As soon as he said that, the boy in the rabbit outfit got hit bomb. Sora used a quick Cura (The spell seemed to be permanently strengthened so he assumed that it was upgraded.) to heal the boy. He started shooting at the various Heartless again. This was difficult because Sora had to be careful not to hit any of the Lost Boys this time around. He also had to avoid using his more destructive magic because of this. Another Heartless popped up in front of him. Sora twitched badly. "Screw this!" Sora took a good look, found where Hook was, took aim, and fired a Fira spell as soon as Peter was a safe distance away. It caused enough of an explosion to knock Hook over to the side of the ship. He flailed his arms a bit as he tried to regain his balance.

*Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock*

Hook's eyes widened as he realized that the crocodile was below him. Peter grinned, floated over, and poked Hook in the forehead. It was enough to send him over the edge. Hook screamed and fell right into the crocodile's mouth, which snapped shut. Then it snapped back open as Hook propped it open with his legs in a desperate bid to escape. This resulted in Hook getting shot out when the crocodile snapped its mouth shut and skipping across the water a few times just in time for Smee (When had he gotten untied?) to reach him with a rowboat. Hook pulled himself in while Smee kept rowing and the crocodile gave chase. It looked sort of like a cartoon…Now to take care of the Heartless. They were attacking more randomly and there weren't any more appearing now so they weren't that difficult to finish off.

Sora fell down onto the deck as he changed back to normal. "Sora? Are you okay?" asked Goofy.

"I'm just tired from using the drive twice in such a short amount of time. Give me a little time, and I'll be fine." And then he fell asleep. Goofy scratched his head.

"Gawrsh, he must be really tired…"

"Huh? Sora's sleeping at a time like this?" asked Peter.

"This is kind of weird," said Aladdin. "Have either of you ever seen him fall asleep like this?" Donald crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Nope."

"Hey, he looks a bit more like a kid like this," said Goofy.

"Why wouldn't he look like a kid?" asked Peter. "He is a kid." Aladdin winced as he thought of some of the stuff he'd seen Sora do during the short amount of time he'd known the kid.

"Uh, that's a bit difficult to explain…" Fortunately, the three were spared from having to explain by Tinkerbell suddenly flying up to him.

"Tink? What is it?" Tinkerbell said something that only Peter could understand. "There's something at the clocktower? Well, let's go check it out. We can bring everyone with us too!" Tinkerbell nodded and flew around the ship sprinkling pixie dust everywhere. The ship started to lift out of the water.

"The ship is flying? !" asked Aladdin. Peter grinned

"Yep! Pixie dust works on anything!"

"Where's the clock tower?" asked Donald. "I don't see a clock tower."

"That's because it's in London," said a little boy with a teddy bear.

"It's called Big Ben," said another boy with glasses, a top hat, and an umbrella. "You can see it from anywhere in London."

"Is that where you're from?" asked Goofy.

"Yes, Peter brought us here because we didn't want Wendy to grow up," explained the boy in the top hat.

"Dad said she had to grow up," added the boy with the teddy bear.

"They changed their mind and decided they wanted to go home though," muttered Peter, crossing his arms. "I don't like it, but if they're gonna be unhappy here, I'll take them back." Peter flew off. He seemed a bit upset about the kids' decision. Aladdin blinked a bit as he thought about what they said. He turned to the boy in the top hat.

"Is Wendy your sister?"

"Yes, I'm John," said the boy with the top hat. "And this is Michael."

"Why would you come here if you didn't want Wendy to grow up?" asked Aladdin.

"In Neverland, nothing changes, people never get older, so you don't have to grow up," explained John.

"I miss Mommy and Daddy," said Michael.

"Well, I hope things go well for you," said Aladdin.

"Is your friend all right?" asked John. "He doesn't look at all well." The three off-worlders took a glance at Sora, who was still sleeping…and covered in blood. John probably thought some of it was Sora's.

"Ah, he'll be fine," said Donald. "He's not gonna die from this after everything else that's happened."

"You have a point there," said Aladdin.

"Hey, do you guys want to help us see if the pirates kept anything good in here?" asked the boy in the bear skin.

"I bet they have treasure!" added the boy in the rabbit costume.

"Sure!" said Aladdin. That was more his style. He followed the lost boys into the ship's hold. Goofy grinned.

"Ahyuk, we didn't get a chance to look around. I wonder if they'll find anything interesting."

"Who knows…" muttered Donald. The two glanced at Sora before walking over and sitting down on either side of him. It would probably be a while before they got to London if they had to fly there. Might as well get some rest.

Later, they reached London. "It looks sort of like Traverse Town, only taller buildings," observed Aladdin.

Meanwhile, Goofy was trying to get the lost boys to give up one of the treasures they found. "C'mon now, their parents are worried sick about them. We need to take them back home."

"But there's 12 of them! Can't you let us keep some?"

"We need to take them back to our town," said Donald. _"Mainly because they don't belong in this world."_

"Why don't we let them decide?" asked the boy in the skunk costume.

"What do you mean?" asked the raccoon twins

"Let them decide who to go with. It should be fair."

"Okay!" The boy in the rabbit costume turned towards the Dalmatian puppies that were being petted by the lost boys. "Let's back off so they can choose!" The lost boys, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin backed off, giving the puppies a wide berth. The puppies made a whimpering sound as the boys did this. They looked around for a second before zeroing in on Sora, who was still sleeping. The made a beeline for him and promptly started climbing all over him.

"Huh, they all went straight to Sora," said Goofy. The lost boys groaned. They'd really wanted a puppy.

"How is he sleeping through that?" asked Aladdin. Sora wasn't even stirring, which was odd considering how the boy always sensed attacks before anyone else. You'd think he'd be a light sleeper. "And what were a bunch of puppies doing on a pirate ship anyway?"

"It's broken!" Everyone looked over at John. "Big Ben! One of the clocks is broken!" He pointed at the clock faces. From the ship's position, everyone could see two of the clock's faces. One said 12 'o clock. The other one said 3 'o clock. Something was obviously wrong with the clock.

"We need to fix it!" said John.

"How?" asked Aladdin.

"If we can move the hand to the correct position, maybe it'll start up again," said John.

"Sora?" Goofy shook the young Tsviet. Sora yawned and opened his eyes blearily and looked down when he felt that something was climbing over him.

"Why am I covered in puppies?"

"Sir, do you think you could fix Big Ben?" asked John. Sora blinked.

"Who?" John pointed at the clock. "Oh…" He yawned. "Okay, I feel a bit better." Sora floated up and looked at three faces to figure out what the correct time was. He spent a moment looking at the hour hand he needed to move and decided his knives were too small and he'd have to use the Keyblade. He then hit the hour hand at three 'o clock until it was at twelve 'o clock. Before he could go back to the ship, the clock face started glowing. Sora blinked again. The glow disappeared, leaving behind a keyhole where the hour hand was before. _"That's a weird place for a keyhole. Oh well, at least that was easy."_ Sora pointed the Keyblade at it, a beam of light came out, a clicking sound was heard, and the keyhole disappeared. He promptly flew down to the ship and went back to sleep.

"Huh, that was weird," said Peter. Wendy coughed.

"Peter could I talk to you before we leave?"

"Sure!" The two went over to the ledge. Wendy walked along it while Peter floated next to her.

"You and the lost boys are really going back to Neverland then?"

"Yeah, you can come back though! It's not too late!" Wendy smiled sadly and shook her head.

"I can't. I'd miss my home too much, and my parents will worry sick if they come home and we're not there." Peter sighed.

"Well, it's your choice. But we can see each other any time! As long as you, John, and Michael don't forget about Neverland, that is." Wendy giggled.

"I don't think it will be possible for us to ever forget!"

"That's great! C'mon, Tink and I will take you home now." Peter turned towards the ship. "I'll be right back! You can go ahead back to Neverland if you get bored though! Oh, and before I forget…" Peter flew over to Sora and quickly braided a feather into his hair. "To surprise him when he wakes up."

"Peter, you're the bravest man I know," said Aladdin. Really, Sora wasn't going to be happy about the feather. Peter just laughed, got Tinkerbell to shower the Darling children with pixie dust, and then they flew off.

"Goofy, help me with Sora," said Donald.

"Sure thing!" The two managed to pick up Sora. The fact that he was managing to sleep through it was pretty shocking.

"Are we leaving?" asked Aladdin.

"Yeah, look over there." Donald pointed towards one of the corners of the ledges. There was a glowing green circle there.

"Guess we better be going then," said Aladdin.

"Bye guys!" said Goofy, waving at the lost boys. They waved back. Then the three conscious travelers managed to drag Sora and the puppies over to the circle and made it back to the gummi ship. They buckled Sora into a seat and then gathered around to look at the Ansem report Aladdin had found while exploring the ship with the lost boys.

"'Simply Astonishing! Today I had a guest from another world. He is a king, and his vessel is built of the material that composed the meteors. He called the pieces "gummi blocks". It seemed that my opening the door has opened a path to interworld travel.

"'We talked for countless hours, but one story in particular caught my interest: that of a key called the "Keyblade". The Keyblade is said to hold phenomenal power.

"'One legend says its wielder saved the world, while another says that he wrought chaos and ruin upon it. I must know what this Keyblade is.

"'A key opens doors. It must be connected to the door I have opened.'"

"He must be talking about His Majesty!" exclaimed Donald.

"You think?" asked Aladdin.

"Yep, not many worlds had gummi ships before the Heartless, and His Majesty used them a lot to check on the condition of the worlds," explained Goofy. "I guess the king knew Ansem."

"He never mentioned him before," mused Donald.

"The legend sort of sounds familiar," said Aladdin.

"It sounds like what King Triton said before," said Goofy. "I guess he heard it too."

"By the way, what's this? I found it at the clock tower." Aladdin held up a navi-gummi. Goofy's face lit up.

"That's a navi-gummi!"

"Great, we're at a dead end," said Donald. It was true. The ship didn't have any more paths for them to follow. Aladdin blinked in confusion

"Huh?"

"We'll explain on the way back to Traverse Town. We can get Cid to install it there."

So they fired up the engines and started back towards Traverse Town.

Meanwhile, Riku was kneeling next to Kairi and panting heavily. Maleficient looked at him with an unreadable expression. "It was reckless to bring her here without at least using a vessel. Remember, relying too heavily on the darkness could cost your heart." A loud roar was heard in the background. Riku quickly stood up and looked over his shoulder in the direction the roar came from.

"What was that?"

"A castaway. Though his world perished, his heart did not. When we took the princess from his castle, he apparently followed her here through sheer force of will. But fear not. No harm will come to you. He is no match for your power." Riku raised an eyebrow.

"My power?"

"Yes, the untapped power that lies within you. Now child, it's time you awakened that power and realized your full potential." Maleficient raised her eyes as a green and black flame-like aura surrounded Riku. He suddenly felt much better and more powerful.

Riku didn't realize it, but he was going to come to regret this very soon.

-my line breaks don't seem to be working…-

Well, that's it for now. Probably not one of my better chapters, but I've had a long semester. Things should be picking up after the next chapter or so, hopefully.

Yes, Sora killed all of Captain Hook's pirates. He's a Tsviet. He'll kill anyone who he considers an enemy or a threat. Look at some of the massacres the Tsviets pulled off in Dirge of Cerberus. It's not surprising that Sora would also be capable of doing this, even if he is one of the nicer Tsviets.

Can you figure out the origins of the insults?

Kimihiro is considered the 'mother' of the Tsviet family because he's the only one who has anything that can be considered parental instincts…and he's the only one who knows how to cook.

The reason Ash, Kimihiro, and Nero were the first ones Sora thought of when he was trying to fly is because they can also fly.

Sora did not get Tinkerbell as a summon due to sleeping for almost the entire time he was in London.

**Omake: Luffy's New First Mate**

As you all know, one of Sora's fellow Tsviets is Zoro. As most of you are aware, he was supposed to be the first mate of the Straw Hat Pirate Crew. Instead, he ended up below Midgar in a private army that was trained to kill without any kind of mercy. Zoro would have been a very powerful and integral part of the crew though. A suitable replacement was needed in that world. Someone who was stronger than most people. Someone willing to work with Luffy. Someone willing to risk their lives for their nakama. Someone with green hair.

"Hi, I'm Luffy. Will you join my pirate crew?" Terra stared at the young man standing in front of her. She wasn't sure if he was being serious or not.

"Uh, no thank you. I don't really have any interest in pillaging villages or murdering people or anything like that."

"Please? I'll cut you down from there." Terra looked at her arms, which were tied to wooden posts. Really, she could have burned the rope away, no problem, but if she did, that little girl and her family would get in trouble.

"That's okay. I'll be released in a few days. Then I can leave. Go find someone else." Luffy frowned.

"No, I've decided that you're going to be on my crew." Terra sweatdropped. Not for the first time, she wondered how she'd ended up on this crazy world. She decided to blame it on Kefka again. It wouldn't be that surprising if he was somehow responsible.

"I won't join your crew. I refuse to kill or hurt any innocents ever again!"

"Okay, that's good." Terra blinked. "If I beat up the guy who tied you up, will you join my crew?"

"If you can find a way to resolve all the problems Axe Hand Morgan's caused, I might consider joining your crew."

"Okay, great!" Then he went running into the Marine base. Terra sweatdropped.

"He's really impulsive…" Of course, since it's Luffy, the town was saved and Terra became his first mate. When Luffy wants someone on his crew, they join his crew.


	17. Chapter 17

And here is chapter 17. Not too much is happening in this chapter. Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin will get new weapons, and there will be another Coliseum tournament, but that's about it.

Something I'd like to say, for some reason, I can now only use one punctuation, so now there will be a space between my questions and exclamation marks. It looks weird, but it's the only way to get both of them in. Might have to go back and do that with the other chapters.

I still don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.

-Chapter start-

"We're back!" said Donald. Aladdin blinked.

"That was fast."

"We used the warp gummi Cid gave us," said Goofy

"Oh yeah, you used that before after we go to Atlantica. Abu, it's that town we were at before! The one with the wizard! You can come out now!" It took a bit of coaxing, but Aladdin finally got the monkey out of the vents. Everyone looked at Sora who was still sleeping…and bloody.

"I think we should take him to Aerith first," said Donald. So as soon as they disembarked, they ran to the hotel where Aerith lived. Her eyes went wide when she saw the little Tsviet.

"What happened to Sora? !"

"He got into a fight with a pirate crew," said Goofy.

"The pirate crew no longer exists," said Aladdin.

"He's fine. He's just sleeping," said Donald.

"He's been sleeping for a couple of hours," pointed out Goofy.

"Uh, he probably just hasn't been getting enough sleep," said Donald.

"Anyway, these guys said you'd help out with his clothes," explained Aladdin. "I certainly don't know what to do with him when he's like this. Donald and Goofy probably don't, and we need to go see Cid about a navi gummi so we were wondering if you could help with him." Aerith took Sora from Aladdin and Goofy and gave him a look over. If nothing else, Sora is quite light. Probably because he has no fat in his body. It was easy for Aerith to see if his clothes and exhaustion were the only problems.

"Okay, I'll wash his clothes and see if I can clean him up some too. I hope he doesn't wake up though. That would be really awkward." Not to mention Sora might accidentally attack her. Then again, it wouldn't be surprising if he was too groggy to do much of anything. She narrowed her eyes when she noticed something odd in his hair. "Is that a feather?"

"Peter thought it would be funny," explained Aladdin. Aerith nodded as if that made perfect sense and looked at the conscious boys.

"What about you guys?"

"We'll take care of some of the other stuff while he's sleeping," said Donald. "No reason to waste time waiting for him to wake up." He pointed at Goofy. "You take the puppies to the other Dalmatians." He pointed at Aladdin. "You go find Cid and get him to install the navi gummi you found…and maybe go to the synthesizing shop. See if you can get anything there. I'll go to my nephews' shop and get us some new weapons."

"You sure we should split up?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah, we'll be fine. Besides, if we get in trouble, we can just run," explained Donald.

"Well, come to my room when you're done," said Aerith. "If I'm done cleaning Sora up, I'll put him in my bed while I clean his clothes." The group split up into the four directions. Donald went over to the shop his Nephews ran.

"Hi Uncle Donald!"

"Hi."

"Did you come to get some more weapons?" asked Huey.

"Yeah, one for me, one for Goofy, and one for Aladdin. Some potions and ethers too."

"We got a good staff, but it's a bit expensive," said Dewey.

"How much?"

"4000 munny."

"That much? !"

"Yeah, it's the only one that we have at the moment that's stronger than the one you have," said Louie.

"Well, let me take a look at it," said Donald. Louie handed it over. It looked similar to the Magus staff, but it was white and yellow instead. It did feel fairly powerful. "Let me see what you have for Goofy and Aladdin first."

"Actually, we don't have anything better than the shield Goofy has now," said Dewey. "We got some more swords though." Huey went over to a rack and went through it until he found what he was looking for and pulled over a scimitar that had a slightly bluish tone to the blade.

"It's made of mythril. It's tougher than iron." Donald thought for a moment.

"Sure, I'll take them."

Aladdin was having a slightly more difficult time. He'd found Cid easily enough, but there was a slight problem.

"This is only half a gummi. I can't install a gummi if there's only half of it you dumbass!"

"Well, what's the other half look like?"

"What do you think it looks like? It looks like the other *beep* half."

"Okay, okay, we'll look for it." Aladdin took the gummi back. Cid made a face.

"Is that my wallet?" Aladdin blinked. He did not steal from Cid, or anyone else in Traverse Town since they were in such a bad state of affairs. He looked at his shoulder where Abu was sitting with a modern leather wallet with a silver airship on it. Not that Aladdin knew what an airship was. Actually Aladdin wasn't completely sure it was a wallet since most people use pouches where he's from.

"Oh, is that what it is? Sorry, Abu likes shiny things." Aladdin tugged at the wallet, which Abu refused to let go off. "Abu! C'mon! We don't need money that badly!" Abu growled. Cid suddenly hit Abu over the head.

"Give me back my money, you little bastard!" That got Abu to let go. Cid snatched the wallet back and gave both Arabians a dirty look.

"Seriously, I only steal to survive, and since I'm traveling around with three people who have plenty of money, I don't have to worry about it!"

"Just get out of here." Aladdin did so. He didn't really want to get on Cid's bad side. Next stop was the Synthesis Shop.

"Keep that monkey away from me, kupo!" Aladdin sweatdropped. Seems the moogles remembered them from last time.

"Okay, no problem. Donald sent me to see if there was anything we could get synthesized."

"Oh, why didn't you say so? How come it's only you, kupo?"

"We split up to save time."

"Okay, tell me what you want, kupo." Aladdin stared at the list…and stared…and stared.

"I can't read."

"Seriously?"

"It's just what happens where I'm from…Can you just read it?" The Moogle sighed, but started listing the items and the materials needed to synthesize them. Aladdin ended up getting a Mega-Potion, a Magic Armlet, a Golem Chain, and a Master Earring. He didn't have materials needed for the other things. "Thanks, see you around." Then Aladdin left to see if he could find his way to Aerith's hotel room.

Goofy had a fairly easy job. He just had to go to the Dalmatian House and summon all of the puppies they'd found since last time they'd come. The two adult dogs gave him a chunk of Orichalcum and a gummi block that Goofy didn't recognize. Since it was a quick and easy errand, Goofy decided to stay for a few minutes to play with the puppies. However, puppies like running all over the place, and they kept running between Goofy's legs. It didn't take long for him to trip and fall over, knocking over a table and a lamp in the process. "Uh oh, I can fix…" He trailed off when he saw the lamp was floating about a foot off the ground. Then the table righted itself, and the lamp placed itself back on the table. Goofy stared wide-eyed before he went running out of the house with one of his trademark yells, much to the dogs' confusion. Angeal sweatdropped.

"_Maybe I should have just put it on the ground and pretended nothing happened."_

In the red room of the hotel, Aerith had just finished tucking Sora into the bed. She'd gotten all of the blood off of him and put him in some clean underwear. Now, she just had to take care of his clothes. She held them up and noticed that they were rather stiff because of all the blood. She'd have to try and rinse some of the blood out before trying to wash it. After a moment of thinking, she decided to use the bathtub.

Aerith was still rinsing the clothes out when Goofy came running in suddenly. "Goofy? Are you okay?"

"G-ghost!"

"Ghost? Do you mean the man with the wings?" Goofy just panted. "I see him playing with puppies sometimes. He seems friendly enough. I don't think you need to be scared." That was when Aladdin came in. He blinked when he saw Goofy's odd expression.

"You okay?"

"Goofy saw a ghost. He's in a bit of shock."

"Was it a dangerous ghost?"

"I don't think so. Puppies play with him." Aerith pulled the bathtub plug to drain the water and held up Sora's vest to see how things were going. It actually was going surprisingly well compared to the Keyblade harness. It was beyond repair so she'd replaced it with a spare she'd had the foresight to procure, but it seemed whatever material the clothes were made of, they were designed to be cleaned easily. Most of the blood had come out. The clothing had an odd pinkish tinge still, but it would be back to normal as soon as they were run through a washing machine. That was when Donald came in.

"What's wrong with Goofy?"

"He saw a ghost," said Aladdin. Donald blinked.

"I didn't know you could get ghosts from Heartless attacks…Did you get the gummi installed?"

"The guy, what was his name again?"

"Cid."

"He said he couldn't install it because it was only half a gummi."

"Half? Hey, wait a minute…" Donald started pulling all sorts of stuff out of his pockets. After pulling out all sorts of weird stuff that Aladdin couldn't even try to identify, Donald finally pulled out something that looked just like the gummi Aladdin had picked up in Neverland. "This must be it!"

"Where'd you get that?"

"We found it when Sora locked this world's keyhole. Go take them to Cid so he can install them."

"I don't think that's a good idea…" Donald raised an eyebrow.

"Why not?"

"Abu stole his wallet. I don't think he'll be happy to see us again." Donald sighed.

"Fine, Goofy and I'll give them to Cid." He grabbed the gummi from Aladdin. "Oh yeah." He handed Aladdin the mythril sword he'd bought. Aladdin looked it over.

"The blade's kind of blue."

"It's mythril. It's supposed to look like that. C'mon Goofy." He dragged the still shocked Goofy out of the room.

"Could you help me out?" asked Aerith. "I can't put Sora's shoes in the washing machine with the rest of his clothes. Would you mind scrubbing them?" Aladdin shrugged.

"Sure." Aerith handed Aladdin the boots, a brush, a couple of bowls of water, and some soap and left with the rest of Sora's clothes. "Well, this shouldn't be too hard."

Donald and Goofy were able to find Cid easily enough. He was in the same place he'd been in earlier, stargazing. He raised an eyebrow when the two anthros walked up to him. "What's with the mutt?"

"Goofy saw a ghost." Cid snorted.

"No such thing as ghosts. Probably just seeing things."

"Can you just install the navi-gummi into our gummi ship?"

"Is that the same navi-gummi from earlier?"

"Yeah."

"Why the fuck did you give that kid only half the gummi? !"

"I forgot about it! We found it after you told us about the gizmo shop bell!"

"That wasn't that long ago! You shouldn't have forgotten about it that soon!"

"Will you install it or not? !"

"Sure." Cid grabbed it. "Not like I got anything better to do. It'll take an hour or so though so you better find something to do 'till I'm done." Then Cid left.

"Well, let's go back to the hotel," said Donald. Goofy just nodded. They got back to find that Aerith was still out and Aladdin was still scrubbing Sora's shoes.

"Hi guys. How'd it go?"

"Cid said he'd have it installed in an hour," said Donald.

"Is Sora okay?" asked Goofy.

"Well, he hasn't moved or anything. He'll probably stay asleep for at least the rest of the day…I hope we don't have to worry about cleaning him or anything."

"We'll just have to wait for him to wake up," said Donald. "Then we can leave." Later, Aerith came back with Sora's clothes.

"Okay, these are clean. How are the shoes coming along?" Aladdin held up the shoes. They were actually quite clean now. "Good to see. How 'bout I take you out to eat? I bet you'd like some home cooking."

"That sounds great!" said Goofy.

"What kind of food is it?" asked Aladdin.

"Italian. You've never tried it before, right? I'm sure you'll love it." Aerith grabbed Aladdin and pulled him out of the room before he could respond. Food sounded good so Goofy and Donald followed after them.

_Sora was terrified. He wasn't sure what was going on. He didn't know where he was. He just knew that his Daddy was acting odd and had just been stabbed from behind and he was bleeding so much. The man who stabbed his Daddy (and he knew who it was but he couldn't think of who it was because there was all that blood and was Daddy even alive?) calmly turned and walked out of the odd room they were in. His Daddy collapsed, but after a moment, he started getting to his feet. Sora felt a burst of hope at that. His Daddy was still alive! He would be okay! Sora started running towards him._

"_Daddy! You're o-" Sora's world erupted into pain. He looked up at his Daddy in shock as he calmly pulled the sword out of Sora's chest. Then Sora was falling and everything hurt and there was so much blood and did his Daddy really hate him that much? Did he really mean to little to him?_

"_Sora!" Then he was standing in a dark space. He still hurt and felt so lost because if his Daddy didn't want him then why would anyone want him? "Sora! It's okay!" And who was calling him? He knew that voice but he didn't know it and he was still hurting so much and he wanted to cry and go to sleep and just never wake up again. "You have us!" Sora looked up as a bright light started shining. "I won't leave you! I promise!" Then the light was so bright and warm and Sora didn't hurt so much. Then Sora was somewhere else again. It was a library. There was an old woman sitting in a chair with a little girl in front of her. The girl looked very familiar._

"_Kairi." Sora didn't know how he knew, but that's who it was, and he was quite proud that he was able to remember._

"_Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light." Oh, the old woman was telling a story. Sora sat down so he could give his full attention. "Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived…in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return. So, listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away. Do you understand, Kairi?" Then the old woman was gone. Just gone. And Kairi was looking around all confused and Sora tried to run over to her but he couldn't because something was pushing against him and pushing him back and he was getting farther and farther away from Kairi and he couldn't reach her._

"_Kairi!" She did nothing. "Kairi!" She didn't hear him at all because she was too nice to ignore him and how did he know that and she was getting farther and farther away._

"_You think you can save him? You can't even save yourself."_

A ceiling came into focus above Sora. He stared…and stared…and stared. Then he sat up and slowly looked around. It looked familiar. Oh look, his clothes. Sora calmly got out and pulled his clothes on. He walked out the door and was finally able to place where he was. The hotel in Traverse Town. Looks like they returned to Traverse Town while he was asleep. That noted, Sora calmly left the hotel.

"You guys have some really odd food here," said Aladdin.

"I think you're just not used to it," said Aerith. "We have all sorts of food from different places, but we've grown up with it so we consider it completely normal." That was when they entered Aerith's room and realized something.

"Where's Sora? !" Unfortunately, Sora wasn't thinking very clearly when he left and did not consider this.

"His clothes are gone," said Goofy. "I guess he woke up and decided to leave."

"How are we supposed to find him? !" shouted Donald. He was not happy.

"Where would Sora go?" asked Aerith.

"He said that he likes to go to relaxing places," said Goofy. "Is there anywhere relaxing here?"

"Hm…Maybe the sewer." Aladdin made a face.

"The sewer?"

"The Heartless don't show up there."

Meanwhile, Sora was wandering around killing any Heartless that tried to attack him. He wasn't really going anywhere in particular. He just wanted to walk around while he thought about the dream (nightmare?) he had. It was an odd dream. It wasn't that odd to have a dream about his pre-Destiny Island life, but Kairi had never shown up in them before. The story-time part had been out there too. He was pretty sure that part had been made up…hopefully. It was sometimes hard to tell with him. And that part at the end…Who was 'him?' Was it talking about Riku? Sora wasn't really worried about saving him anymore after the way he'd acted. "Hm?" The door to Merlin's house was not too far away from him. "Oh, it's Merlin's. I have some more pages from that book. I think I'll go check it out." So Sora walked in.

Back with the group, they were in the sewers. "These are the nicest sewers I've ever been in," said Aladdin. Everyone gave him a weird look. "What? I'm a thief. I go all over the place." They paused as they heard swinging noises and some grunts. They hurried forward, but…

"You're not Sora!" Leon gave Donald a withering look.

"I'd think that's pretty obvious."

"Have you seen Sora?" asked Aerith. "He was sleeping so we left him in my room while we got some food, and he was gone when we got back."

"You lost Sora? !"

"Don't worry," said Goofy. "He took his clothes, so it wasn't the Heartless."

"Well, where could he go?" asked Leon.

"Somewhere relaxing," said Aladdin.

"Maybe he decided to visit Gepetto," suggested Goofy.

So the group, which now included Leon, left to go to Gepetto's house. Ironically, if they'd gotten on the lift at the back of the sewers, they'd have arrived at Merlin's house at the same time as Sora. Merlin smiled when he saw Sora walk in. "Ah, Sora, good to see you. Where are your friends?" Sora shrugged.

"I'm not sure. I woke up in Traverse Town and just needed to get out."

"Well, I hope you left a note."

"No, but I can take care of myself. They know that. There's no need for them to worry."

"Ah, but as your friends, they will worry about you no matter how strong you are." Sora snorted.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

Meanwhile, the group was in the First District and had gotten to Gepetto's place.

"Well, hello there," said Gepetto. "Did Sora decide to take a break?"

"No, he left the hotel room while we were getting food, and now we can't find him," explained Aladdin.

"Yuffie, what are you doing here?" asked Leon. Yuffie was in a corner waving a cat toy in front of Figaro.

"Oh come on." Yuffie picked up Figaro and held him up in Leon's face. "Even you have to admit this is an adorable kitten." Figaro licked Squall's nose. "What's this about Sora going missing?"

"It's like Aladdin said. We can't find Sora," said Aerith. "We're looking in relaxing places."

"What if he finds killing Heartless relaxing?" asked Yuffie. Everyone went silent. That was actually a possibility with Sora.

"That kid is so much trouble," muttered Leon.

Back in Merlin's house, Sora had finally pulled out the book pages and gone into Pooh's book. He decided to go to what looked like a tree with a swing hanging from it.

This was a nice looking spot. There was a tree on a hill with a swing hanging from a branch and a bridge over a slowly flowing river. Pooh and Piglet were looking over the side of the bridge. Sora walked over to them and looked over the side of the bridge. All he saw were a couple of sticks floating down the river.

"What are you two doing?" asked Sora.

"Playing Pooh Sticks," said Pooh. Sora blinked, but didn't get the chance to ask what that was. Piglet suddenly pointed down at the river.

"Look! Something is floating this way!" said Piglet. Sora looked down and saw that there seemed to be some sort of animal floating down the river.

"I think you're right Piglet. What could it be?" Pooh scrunched his face up in concentration for a second before he suddenly brightened. "Why, it looks like Eeyore!" Pooh waved. "Hello Eeyore! If it is you."

"Hello, Pooh." Was it just Sora, or did Eeyore sound depressed? "Yes, it's me. Could you pull me out? That is, if it's not too much trouble. Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to." Sora sweatdropped and quickly dived in to get Eeyore out.

A minute later, all four were on the bank and Sora had gotten a good look at Eeyore. He looked like a small, blue, sad donkey who was missing his tail. "Thank you Pooh. Thank you other you."

"It's Sora." Eeyore stood up and shook some of the residue water off.

"You know, floating along out there, it seemed like something was missing…" Eeyore tried to look behind him. "And something's still missing."

"Why Eeyore's tail is gone!" said Piglet, pointing at where the missing appendage was supposed to be. "Is that what's missing?"

"Let's see…" Eeyore craned his head to the side a bit more to get a better look at his rear. "Yep, lost it again." Sora blinked at this. How do you lose a tail more than once? "Wonder where it went this time. It's not much of a tail, though I'm sort of attached to it, but I don't know why anybody'd look for it. Probably won't find it anyway…" Sora sweatdropped again. Eeyore seemed to have some sort of problem.

"Lost something?" Everyone looked up and saw Owl perched on a limb in the swing tree. "Searching from a high place is the quickest way to find it!"

"Can you look for it since you can fly?" asked Sora.

"I'm afraid my eyes aren't what they used to be. Too much reading, you know. But I can offer good advice. Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to, but do you see this swing here?" They all nodded. "Well, Sora, you're a bit too big to fit, but Pooh should fit nicely. Push him as high as you can and see if he sees anything." This was simple enough, so Sora put Pooh on the swing and started pushing him gently. Of course, that means Pooh was still going pretty high.

"See anything?" asked Sora.

"I see Eeyore's house. And Eeyore. And Piglet. And the bridge. And some trees. And-"

Just then, the swing reached its apex and Pooh went flying. "Oops. Sorry about that!" shouted Sora. There was a loud crash as Pooh landed on what appeared to be a pile of sticks. Everyone ran over to check on Pooh. Pooh was sitting up and seemed to be fine. Among the scattered sticks was a blue piece of cloth with a tuft of black hair on one end and a pink bow. Eeyore noticed that.

"Hm? That looks familiar…"

"It's your tail!" exclaimed Piglet.

"So, how do we reattach it?" asked Sora. A moment later, Sora has using a hammer and a small nail to put the tail where it was supposed to be. _"I guess these guys are sentient dolls or something…"_ "Okay, done." Eeyore swished his tail a few times.

"It's not much of a tail, but it's mine. Thanks, everyone."

Pooh suddenly sighed. "I wish we could put the Hundred Acre Wood back the way it was too…"

"Hey, don't worry. I'm sure everything will be back to normal in no time," said Sora.

"You really think so?" asked Piglet.

"Yeah." Sora stretched a little. "So, what's this Pooh Sticks thing you were doing before anyway?"

"It's a game Pooh made up," said Piglet.

"You drop sticks off a bridge," explained Pooh. "You go to the other side. The stick that comes out first wins."

Meanwhile, the group was still looking around for Sora. "You know, Sora said he knew Angeal Hewley," said Yuffie. "He was a deserter. Maybe Sora decided to follow his example."

"But it seems like Sora doesn't think very highly of Shinra," commented Aerith.

"What's a Shinra?" asked Aladdin.

"Nasty people. Real cut throat. Willing to hurt anyone to make a profit," explained Yuffie.

"Oh, so they're bandits." Aladdin's response caused Yuffie to laugh hysterically until she nearly collapsed.

Meanwhile, Sora had finally left the swing area after playing a few rounds of Pooh Sticks. Next, he decided to go to what looked like a bunch of tree stumps. He found himself in a small area that was full of different sized tree stumps and surrounded by trees. Tigger was bouncing from stump to stump along with what looked like a baby kangaroo in a blue shirt. Tigger caught sight of Sora and waved. "Hulloo Sora! This here's my bouncin' spot! We can bounce around here all day!" To punctuate this, Tigger didn't stop bouncing once while he was talking to Sora."

"Nothing beats bouncin'!" agreed the kangaroo. He didn't stop bouncing, but he decided to bounce up to Sora. "My name's Roo! You're Sora, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's a funny name!" Sora twitched.

"You wanna bounce too Sora?" asked Tigger. "It's lotsa fun!" Sora thought for a moment. For a moment, he saw himself as a child jumping around the stumps. He'd missed out on his childhood…

"Sure." Roo put his hands on his hips.

"To bounce with the finest, you'll need some tips from the finest." They heard a flapping noise and looked up. Owl waved from where he'd landed on a tree branch. "Owl, you don't bounce around like us!" Owl wilted slightly.

"I'm afraid you're correct. Oh well, I guess one can't master everything."

"All right! Just follow our lead!" said Tigger. He started bouncing from stump to stump with Roo following him. Sora shrugged and started bouncing after the two.

Meanwhile, the search group was resting in the gizmo shop. "Sora is good at hiding," said Goofy.

"Aerith, you're psychic. Can't you try to sense where he is or something?" asked Yuffie.

"Hm…I don't know. Usually, I just know where Sora is when he's on this world."

"Then how come you don't know where he is?" asked Aladdin.

"Sora's a little tricky. I think it's because of his odd abilities." Everyone sighed.

"Let's go to Cid's house," said Leon. "If nothing else, we can discuss where he might be."

Meanwhile…

Sora hit an apple up into a tree. "Not bad!" Tigger bounced out of a giant pot and threw another apple at Sora. He hit it into another tree. "It's outta here!" Tigger bounced out and threw another apple, which Sora hit.

*Crash!*

Sora winced. There went the pot. He hoped it wasn't important. "Was that important?"

"Ah, don't worry about it." Sora sighed.

"I'm gonna go now. I've had enough bouncing for now."

"Suit yourself." Tigger and Roo started bouncing from stump to stump again. Sora calmly left the area and proceeded to the last pop-up left, which appeared to be some kind of marsh. Yep, it was a marsh. There were plants, but there was also a lot of mud. Sora blinked. Pooh was walking in circles around a bush. "Pooh, what are you doing?"

"Shh…Quiet, or they'll get away." Pooh kept walking. Sora blinked again.

"Who?"

"The people who took everyone away. See their footprints?" Sora looked down. There were footprints going around the bush, but Sora recognized them as Pooh's. "We were all sticking together to make sure no one got lost again. But then, I saw some footprints that needed following. So I did. Suddenly, everyone was gone. Bad people must have taken them away!" Sora chuckled. Pooh was rather simple at times, but it was sort of endearing.

"_I'll let him think they're someone else's footprints."_ "How 'bout I help you find everyone?"

"Okay, I've been following these footprints for so long that I'm getting rather rumbly in my tummy."

"Now, where would I go if I were any of the others…" Sora tried to see if he could sense any of the toys and sweatdropped before pushing aside the bush Pooh had been walking around. Despite appearances, the bush was only a couple of inches thick and growing in a circle, leaving a circle of bare ground inside it. Eeyore was standing in the circle. "Eeyore, what are you doing in here?"

"Lookin' for sticks to build my house…again." Sora saw no sticks. Just a lot of bush.

"This place already seems like a house…Hey, this could be a good place to have everyone meet up."

"Hm?"

"Pooh kind of lost everyone else. I'm gonna help him look for them."

"Oh." Sora walked out of the bush and took a quick look around. Roo was around here somewhere. He spotted a patch of blue and looked up. Roo was standing on a tree root watching him.

"Roo, could you please come down?"

"Why?"

"Pooh's worried that everyone got lost again. I want to get everyone in the same place to calm him down."

"Oh…okay!" Roo hopped down. "Wait in the bushes, right?"

"Right." Roo bounced to the bush to wait with Eeyore. Sora looked up and noticed Tigger bouncing along a log. "Hey, Tigger!"

"Hulloo there! When'd you get here?"

"Just now. Pooh and I are trying to gather everyone up. Would you mind waiting in that bush over there?"

"All right." Tigger bounced over to the bush, but decided to bounce around it instead of just waiting inside with Roo and Eeyore. Sora started forward and noticed Pooh was following him. He shrugged. As long as Pooh didn't get lost, he didn't see any reason to mind. Just past the log Tigger had bounced past was a well with air rushing out of it and a rock wall with three holes in it. Sora peered in one of them. Rabbit seemed to be looking around curiously.

"Rabbit?" Said animal jumped slightly and spun around.

"Oh, hello Pooh, Sora. I was wondering what happened to you."

"Are you hiding from the bad people?" asked Pooh. Rabbit blinked and gave Sora a questioning look. Sora just shrugged.

"Actually, I just thought this would be a good place to store some of my spare gardening tools. I don't want them to rust you know." Sora was willing to bet that Rabbit would like to hide his honey here too.

"Would you mind going to a circular bush back there?" asked Sora. "Pooh and I are trying to gather everyone into one place."

"May I ask what for?"

"Pooh's worried that everyone got taken away again."

"Oh, okay. I'll see you there then." Rabbit walked out of the hole and over towards the bush. Sora looked around.

"Well, we'll have to jump up there to keep looking. Are you afraid of heights?" Pooh shook his head. "Okay, come here for a second." Sora carefully picked up Pooh and jumped up onto a ledge. He noticed Owl behind some grass and put Pooh down to go talk to him.

"I see you've found all the pages." Sora blinked.

"I have?"

"Yes, thank you. The missing pages caused all sorts of problems for us."

"Really? This world seems rather peaceful. It doesn't seem like you'd have too many problems."

"It depends on your point of view. You seem like someone who's had a rather rough life. In comparison, we must seem worry free. We do have worries though, even if they are fairly minor. Rabbit protecting his garden from Tigger, Pooh's search for honey, Eeyore's tail and house, and, of course, the search for missing friends. In most people's eyes, these are not much of a problem. This world is more suited for children than anyone else." Sora tilted his head in thought.

"I see what you mean. Most of the problems I've seen here aren't a very big deal."

"And yet you still helped the inhabitants of this world." Sora nodded.

"Yeah, finding Pooh that first time, all alone and without his friends, I felt sorry for him. I guess it was because my friends had gone missing recently too. Normally, I wouldn't have tried helping him…" Owl tilted his head.

"Are you sure? Most people think they know themselves, but that's usually not the case." Sora shrugged.

"I don't think it matters why I did it…especially if I don't completely understand why…"

"If that's how you feel about it, then I won't press the issue."

"Hey, wait a minute." Sora quickly replayed the conversation he'd just had with Owl. "You know about other worlds? And the nature of this one?"

"Yes, I read about it in a book once a long time ago."

"Who wrote it?"

"No author. I just found it outside my home one day. I don't know where it came from."

"That's suspicious."

"Well, I can't argue with that. Are you trying to gather all of us up?"

"Yeah, looks like I accidentally left Pooh behind though." Owl chuckled. Sora raised an eyebrow. Owl gestured behind him. Sora turned and sweatdropped. A few yards away, Pooh's top half was stuck in a hole at the bottom of a tree. Sora sighed and walked over with Owl. "Pooh, what are you doing in there?"

"I was just saying hello to Piglet."

"Hm?" Sora quickly checked and found that Piglet was in there. He probably didn't have much room with Pooh's top half in there. "Piglet? You okay?"

"I-I'm fine."

"I'll try pulling Pooh out. I hope I don't need more of that carrot juice." Fortunately, it was very easy to pull Pooh out of the tree, and Piglet came out right after him. "C'mon, Let's get back to the others."

Back in Traverse Town, the search group had gotten to Cid's house where he was cooking something in a large pot. He raised an eyebrow. "Never seen ya'll together before. Something going on that I should know about?"

"We can't find Sora," said Leon.

"You mean he's not at Merlin's?" Everyone gave Cid a very odd look. "What?"

"What makes you think he's at Merlin's?" asked Aerith.

"I saw him walking down the alley to Merlin's a while ago." Cid sniffed at his soup. "Does this taste like it needs salt to you?" He held the ladle out to the group. Curious, Aladdin took a sip and promptly had a coughing fit and started gagging.

"What is that? !"

"Toss it in the pot stew."

"You tossed everything in the fridge in a pot again, didn't you?" asked Yuffie.

"What's it to ya? It's my food. I can do what I want with it." Leon took a deep breath, as if to give him some added patience.

"Cid, didn't you think it was odd that Sora was wandering around on his own?"

"No, he can take care of himself."

"Yeah, but we need him to find the king!" said Donald.

"What about after that?" Donald blinked at that unexpected question.

"I guess he can leave if he wants to." Cid snorted.

"If I was that kid, I'd just kick your asses, steal your ship, and just go look for whatever he's trying to find. Don't know why the brat hasn't done that. Then again, can't tell what the fuck he's thinking either." Cid gulped down the soup still in the ladle. "Needs some pepper."

"Let's just go to Merlin's," said Leon. "We can tell Sora that he shouldn't wander away from us."

"It won't do any good," said Aerith. "This was how he was raised. A lecture won't change anything. He'll have to experience something first-hand to understand it."

"Um…" Everyone turned to Goofy. "Do you really think we're using Sora?"

"Yes," said Cid.

"I'm just traveling with you guys to look for Jasmine," said Aladdin.

"I can kind of see what Cid's saying," said Yuffie.

"I think Sora doesn't trust you, but he wants to trust you so he's giving you the benefit of the doubt," said Aerith. Donald raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean he doesn't trust us?"

"Haven't you noticed? He doesn't trust anyone, unless they do something that lets him know they're on his side. He didn't trust Leon until that match Leon threw a match to keep Sora from hurting himself. He's more open with me, but that's because we're both capable of seeing things people normally don't see. Sora doesn't really trust anyone else, but he wants to trust us. That's why he tries to be friendly even though he doesn't know us that well."

"So, he doesn't trust us?" Goofy sounded rather sad. He'd become fond of Sora, and the thought hurt him.

"Hey, that's not 100%!" said Yuffie. "That's just what everyone's saying. What we need to do is hear it straight from Sora! So let's go to Merlin's place!"

"You go. I'm gonna finish this soup," said Cid. "Oh yeah, finished installing that gummi. You can fly your ship there whenever you want now, but that place is packed with Heartless so you better be careful."

Where was Sora during this conversation? He was stargazing with the residents of the 100 Acre Woods. It was oddly relaxing. Sora closed his eyes. _"A world for children…I wonder if this is what a normal kid feels like? Would I have been as carefree as these guys if I'd had a normal childhood? Oh well, I'll never know…and I wouldn't want a normal childhood. I'd have never seen any of this…or met any of them. I'd just be a normal kid trying to find ways to amuse myself. Still…I think I got the short end of that stick."_

"Sora? Is it time to go to bed?" Sora chuckled and opened his eyes to look at Pooh.

"Oh, I was just thinking. This place is really nice…Are you glad that everyone's back?" Everyone nodded.

"I'm so glad we're all together again," said Piglet. "I didn't know what to do when I was all alone."

"Aw, Piglet, you gotta be brave!" said Tigger. Piglet blinked in surprise.

"You weren't lonely at all?"

"Lonely? Are you kidding? I'm a Tigger! The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is that I'm the only one! But I do admit, friends are awfully fun too!" Sora chuckled a bit at Tigger. Everyone was silent for the next few minutes.

"Think, think, think." Sora glanced over at Pooh, who was tapping his head.

"What're you thinking about?"

"Oh, well, I'm just thinking about what to think about." Sora chuckled.

"_I've been here for a while. I should probably be getting back."_ Sora stood up and brushed himself off. "Well, I better be getting back." That got everyone's attention.

"Sora? Where are you going?" asked Piglet.

"I'm gonna go look for my friends. I don't know if they're looking for me, but I want to find them so I'll look for them until I find them."

"Bounce on back again!" said Tigger.

"I will."

"I hope you find your friends!" said Piglet. Sora smiled.

"Thank you." With that, Sora started walking away while waving. The toys waved back as Sora felt himself being transported out of the book.

"Sora, don't forget…We shall always be here. If you'd like to visit again, that is."

Then Sora was floating…in space…with a giant version of the book floating about a 100 meters in front of him. This was absurd enough for Sora to go "Huh? !" Then the book closed and a strip folded over to keep it closed. A keyhole appeared in the metal at the end of the strip. "Hm? A Keyhole? I guess this world has a Keyhole too." Sora grabbed the Keyblade, pointed it at the Keyhole, and a beam shot out into the Keyhole. As the locking sound was heard, the cover of the book started glowing. When it stopped glowing, the formerly blank white section of the cover had a picture on it. The picture was Sora holding Pooh's left hand with Piglet holding the other. Tigger was bouncing on his tail. They were walking away from the cover so that all you saw were their backs, but Sora was looking at the animal toys, and the animal toys were looking at Sora. Sora blinked at the picture. "I'm on the cover? Did I somehow become part of the story?" And then Sora was back in Merlin's study.

"It's about time!" Sora blinked several times. Why were practically all the people he knew in Merlin's house?

"What are all you guys doing here?" He was promptly grabbed by Yuffie who started shaking him back and forth.

"That's our line! We spent two hours running around looking for you! What possessed you to go running off without telling anyone? !" Sora pushed Yuffie away.

"I don't see why it's a big deal here. Yeah, it would be a problem if we were in the middle of something on another world, but this world's small enough that it's not difficult to find someone. Besides, it's not like I can't take care of myself."

"We know you can take care of yourself," said Aerith. "But we were worried about you."

"Really? Why?"

"You're worried about your friends, Riku and Kairi, aren't you?" asked Aerith.

"I'm worried about Kairi since she was in pretty bad shape when I saw her, but I don't care about Riku anymore." That's Sora, as blunt as ever.

"So, it's okay to beat him up then?" asked Aladdin.

"Aladdin!"

"Go right ahead."

"Sora!"

"Just don't wander off without telling anyone where you're going again," said Leon. "It'll save everyone a lot of trouble and stress." Sora let out a huff of exasperation.

"Fine! I'll warn you next time I decide to walk around to think!" Honestly, Sora did not understand why they were so worried about him. None of the Tsviets ever worried about him…except for Kimihiro, but he was an overprotective mother hen so he wasn't sure that counted.

"I think that's enough excitement for one night," said Aerith. "Let's all go home and get some rest, okay?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," said Yuffie.

"We don't have a place to stay," said Donald.

"You can stay with me," said Aerith. "I have some extra futons."

"I'm okay with that," said Sora. So Aerith, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin headed back towards the hotel.

"Hey, Sora?"

"Yeah, Goofy?"

"Do you trust us?"

"Just Aerith." Goofy sighed. "What?"

"How come?"

"I…just have trust issues. I haven't known any of you nearly long enough to trust you."

"You haven't known Aerith that long," pointed Donald.

"Aerith's just one of those people…"

Then they got to the hotel. "Oh! Before I forget…" Aerith pulled the red feather that had been in Sora's hair out of her pocket. "Here." Sora took it and blinked when he saw there was a silver chain attached to the end.

"Where'd you get this?"

"It was in your hair." Sora made a face.

"What was a keychain doing in my hair?"

"Peter put it there as a joke," said Aladdin.

"Well, might as well see what it looks like." Sora removed the Pumpkinhead charm, put it on his chain, and then put the new one on. After the Keyblade changed, Sora started looking it over. It was shorter now, The shaft was a light and dark green, the grip was dark green, the base was light green with the chain extending from it, the guard was a pair of white fairy wings, there was another pair of blue fairy wings coming out right above that, then end of the shaft was white, and the teeth were a set of panpipes. "Fairy Harp. Looks like the color scheme Peter's clothes had with Tinkerbell's wings."

"I like it," said Aerith.

"I wonder where he got it," mused Goofy.

"Who cares?" said Donald. "Let's just get some sleep. I'm beat."

After a night's sleep and breakfast, the boys got back on the gummi ship. When they started the ship up, an announcement appeared on the screen.

"What's that say?" asked Aladdin.

"'Come see the Hercules Cup. Competitors will include the world famous Hercules. Great prizes.'"

"Oh, are you guys gonna be taking part in another fighting tournament?"

"Well, anyone mind making a slight detour?" asked Sora.

"I don't mind," said Goofy.

"Oh, fine, we'll check it out," said Donald. They then used the warp drive to get to the Coliseum. When they walked in, Phil looked up from a tablet he was looking at.

"Oh, you guys again. You entering the tournament?" Sora nodded. "Well, you know the deal. The guy with the monkey can't take part in the tournament. Don't plan on winning today though. No way is Herc gonna lose to some pipsqueaks like you!"

"Fine by me." The group had to wait a little while for others to sign up.

The first fight was against 5 Gargoyles and 3 Shadows. The Shadows were easily taken care of. The Gargoyles were more of a problem. They had to attack the Gargoyles still in physical form while avoiding the Gargoyles in flame form. So, it took a few minutes, but they were able to beat them without much of a problem.

The second match was against 4 Wight Knights, 2 Barrel Spiders, and an Air Pirate. Sora and Donald immediately hit the Barrel Spiders with Fira spells, which caused them to explode and catch the Wight Knights' bandages on fire. While the Wight Knights were running around, trying to put themselves out, Donald and Sora attacked the Air Pirate. Goofy was making sure no one attacked them. After they got rid of the Air Pirate, they finished off the Wight Knights.

The third match was against 4 Pirates and a Battleship. This was a bit trickier. The Pirates wouldn't have been difficult to deal with if not for the Battleship. It kept dropping bombs and firing cannonballs at the group. In the ends, Donald shot spells at the Battleship while Goofy and Sora fought the Pirates. After the Pirates were taken care of, Sora and Goofy joined in attacking the Battleship. Some Cures were required.

The fourth match was against 4 Gargoyles and 3 Wight Knights. This took a few minutes simply because it was difficult to land hits on both of them, but they eventually managed to beat the Halloween Town Heartless.

The fifth match…okay, no match. It was just a Rare Truffle jumping around. Sora just bopped it on the head to make it go away.

The sixth match was against a Stealth Sneak, the same type of Heartless as the chameleon from Tarzan's world. This one didn't turn invisible though so it was a battle of stamina more than anything else.

The seventh match was against a Wight Knight, 2 Gargoyles, 2 Pirates, and 2 Air Pirates. This was a bit tricky too. Goofy defended Donald while the mage cast spells. Sora took a more physical approach and slashed at the Heartless with his daggers.

The eighth match was against 2 Battleships, an Air Pirate, and 2 pirates. This one was a pain to deal with. The Battleships were difficult to reach and dropped bombs when the boys attacked the Pirates. The Air Pirate was a bit tricky to reach too. The Pirates weren't that difficult to deal with. When those two were taken care of the flying enemies became a bit easier to deal with, but still took a while to deal with.

"Okay, you three are now in the finals," said Phil. "That means that you're gonna hafta fight Herc. Now, you can either just forfeit or fight him, but you should just forfeit so he doesn't accidentally hurt you."

"Actually, I've been watching him," said Sora. "His fighting style reminds me of another guy's fighting style, including the odd shield around his body. I'd like to try and see how I'll do against him."

"It's your funeral," said Phil.

"So, what's the plan?" asked Donald.

"About that…Would you mind if this was a one-on-one match? That way I can move at full speed."

"What? !"

"I don't have a problem with it," said Phil.

"You don't want our help?" asked Goofy.

"Like I said, I have a lot of experience fighting someone similar to Hercules. One of the more important things in dealing with this sort of opponent is speed. I'll be able to move more quickly if I don't have to worry about you two." The two anthros sighed.

A moment later, Hercules and Sora were facing each other in the ring. "Doesn't your team have two others?"

"I asked Phil to make this one-on-one."

"Really, how come?"

"It's just how I'm used to fighting. I can go all out this way."

"Well, it's your choice, but I'm not going easy on you." Then Hercules started glowing yellow.

"That's fine by me!" Sora twirled his daggers and activated his Wisdom Drive. _"Since he's as strong as he is, physical attacks probably won't have much of an effect. I should try to stick to magic."_ He dodged a jab from Hercules. Sora cast a quick Aero to lessen the effects of Hercules's attacks. _"If his shield is anything like Azul's, a hard enough hit should cause it to fall, at least for a little while. I just hope it doesn't take something like a bazooka to make it fall!"_ Sora dodged a couple of punches to his head. Then a barrel suddenly popped up in a corner of the arena. Sora blinked. _"That's never happened before. I wonder if I can use that." _Sora glided over to the barrel so fast that it was like he was in front of Hercules one second and behind the barrel the next. Hercules spun around looking for him a moment before locating the Tsviet.

"Wow, you're fast!" Sora didn't reply and instead punched toward the barrel with both fists. The punches didn't actually reach the barrel. They stopped about an inch from the barrel. A Fira spell came flying out of his fists, engulfed the barrel, and sent it flying toward Hercules. The man was surprised enough that he didn't dodge in time. It caused the glow to subside and Hercules shook his head a bit.

"_Now!"_ Sora cast Stop, freezing Hercules in place. Then he cast all the offensive spells that he could until Stop's effects wore off. Stop didn't last as long as it did with the Heartless for some reason. Hercules ended up suffering from the effects of all the spells Sora fired at him at once. Sora fired a couple more spells before the effects completely appeared. Hercules exhaled sharply.

"Ow…What did you do? I'm gonna have to be more careful with you!" Sora shot another Thundara, which Hercules dodged. His shield wasn't back up yet. That was good. Sora got in closer so that Hercules would have more trouble dodging his spells and cast another Stop. Then he started using as many spells as he could.

*Wham!*

Sora blinked several times. He was lying on a hard surface and his head hurt. "Hey, I think he's waking up!" Sora sat up blinking.

"I lost?"

"Nope. It was a double knockout." Sora blinked and turned. Hercules was standing next to the entrance of the stadium. "I punched you as soon as I could move my body again, but a lightning bolt hit me in the head. We knocked each other out."

"So that's what happened…"

"Don't be so reckless," said Donald. "We were afraid that he'd really hurt you."

"Fine, fine."

"I can't believe it was a draw," said Phil. "From now on, we're working on you magic defense! No way am I allowing any student of mine to have a weakness like that after what happened to Achilles."

"I guess I deserved that." Hercules turned towards Goofy. "You fight using shields, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, then you can have this." Hercules gave Goofy a shield with a cloud and lightning bolt design.

"That's the tournament prize! Hercules insisted on giving it to you guys for some reason," said Phil.

"I don't use it that much anyway." Hercules turned to Sora. "When you've grown some, we should have another match." Sora grinned.

"Yeah, I'd like that. You're really strong." Then the ground under the stone against the wall started glowing. "Hm?"

"That's never happened before," said Phil.

"Hold on. I'll move the stone." Hercules moved the stone and placed it off to the side. "Huh, this looks like a keyhole or something." The boys perked up.

"Really?" Sora walked over. There was a glowing keyhole in the floor. "So this is where it was…I'll take care of it." Sora grabbed the Keyblade and held it out over the keyhole. The beam shot out, it locked the keyhole, and the beam and keyhole disappeared. Oddly enough, there was a charm where the keyhole just was. It was golden in color and had the same symbol on it as Hercules's shield, most of the chain was iron, but the clasp was gold. "Huh, where'd that come from?"

"It must be a gift from the gods." Sora gave Hercules an odd look. "Well, it's Zeus's symbol."

"Your shield has that symbol too though…"

"Yeah, there's a good reason for that. Anyway, that wasn't there before. I guess it's a reward for something. I'll have to ask next time I run into a god." The way Hercules said that so casually made Sora wonder what these gods were like, but he picked up the charm and replaced the Fairy Harp charm with it. The handle was a Greek style columns, the hand guards were columns with those odd curled things on the top and bottom, the shaft also looked like a column with odd gray edging and 'Hercules' carved into it, and the teeth also looked like the curly thing found on top of columns, but bent somewhat. "Olympia." That was when Aladdin suddenly came running in.

"Hi guys! Hey! You got another Keyblade!"

"Yeah…"

"Hey, you see anyone suspicious?" asked Phil. "The Heartless have been upset lately. I think someone's stealing their stuff."

"Nope, didn't see anyone." Sora sweatdropped. He had a feeling Aladdin had something to do with that.

"Uh, guys, we need to get going," said Goofy.

"Right. Sorry, but we need to be somewhere," said Sora.

"Okay. Phil's planning another tournament. You should come by and compete. There should be a lot more opponents in it," said Hercules.

"Okay, we will." And then the boys left to head to the next new world.

-End Chapter-

And Angeal made a very brief cameo appearance, in case any of you like him.

I have no idea what DEEPGROUND clothes are made of, but with all the brutal killing that goes on down there I figure they have to be easy to clean.

Sora's dream scene…yeah, poor Sora. I put him through so much.

Yes, Sora found the other pages. I just didn't mention it because Sora wasn't actively looking for them. He just ran across them.

Cid's cooking is taken from the manga because I can see him throwing everything in the fridge into a pot and calling it dinner.

Sora may have only spent a year in DEEPGROUND, but the trauma that caused and growing up with a bunch of merciless killers who like fighting does not make for a nice childhood, even if you live in a nice place like Destiny Islands.

The matches in the Coliseum were skipped over because the only fight that was really important was Hercules, and I replaced Cloud because I didn't want Sora to go psycho and stab his shoulder again. As for Hercules…I wanted Sora to get the shield and keychain, but it seemed like Hercules would be a difficult fight even for a Tsviet. I decided to make it a lucky draw for Sora after he let his guard down for a second.

**Omake: Even Nobodies Avoid Him**

Zexion sighed as he walked out of a dark corridor and into a world he was completely unfamiliar with. Demyx had complained about a crazy man that had broken his ribs last time he was here. He claimed the man had been wearing an outfit similar to the Keyblade wielder's, so Zexion had been sent to confirm this.

"Hello!" Zexion jumped about a foot in the air. There was a man with a psychotic grin floating a foot in front of him.

"_How did I miss that?"_ Then he noticed that the man was wearing clothes that were similar in appearance to Sora's. _"This must be the man Demyx was talking about."_ "Might I ask who you are?" The man then struck a weird pose. He seemed to be trying to give the appearance of a superhero or something.

"I am Ash the Gray!" Then he dropped to a much more casual stance. "I'm a ghost!" Zexion gave him a weird look and checked his scent. Ash did not smell dead. He smelled like dust and ash. That was an odd combination.

"How did you know I was here?"

"The aura told me a person that wasn't really a person came here through a swirling vortex of darkness and crap."

"What?"

"It's sort of like the Force 'cept it's different." That wasn't what Zexion had been talking about. He'd been wondering about how Ash knew he wasn't a person…and about the Dark Corridor. "Let's go!" Zexion's eyes widened as he saw some odd blue spheres rushing for him. He dropped to the ground.

"What are you doing? !"

"I wanna fight! All the Pokémon wannabes here avoid me like the plague, and I haven't had a decent fight in who knows how long! There was some weirdo with a guitar or something, but he ran away shouting something about me being crazier than a Sigdar or something." Zexion twitched. Demyx might not have been far off. Zexion summoned his book. At the very least, he should be able to last until the man was distracted enough to make a break for it.

Later, back in The World That Never Was, Vexen was looking over Demyx's ribs when Zexion suddenly stumbled in through a dark portal. "Hm? Zexion?" Zexion leaned against a wall, panting heavily. Then he coughed up some blood. "What happened to you?"

"Demyx was right. That man is insane."

"Told you."

"And he can somehow detect Nobodies. I say that none of us ever go to that world again."

"Was it really that bad?" asked Vexen. Zexion held up his lexicon. It was beat up and was missing most of its pages. This was odd because Zexion took very good care of his lexicon. "What happened to your book?"

"I trapped him in my book to get a break, and he somehow blew it up from the inside!"

"Huh, I didn't even know it was possible to damage our weapons," mused Vexen. "I wonder if it can be repaired."

"Can you worry about that after we do something about my internal bleeding?"

Needless to say, that world was put on the list of worlds no one is allowed to without Xemnas's permission, and it was all Ash's fault.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18, Hollow Bastion! This is one of the most important chapters in the story! Also answers some questions. Took forever to write in a way that would keep Riku alive. Kind of need him. Not to mention they meet Ansem…the fake Ansem I mean. Some reactions from Sora might be rather different.

It took a while to get this out mainly because I was distracted by Birth By Sleep. That game had some real shockers…I think I may have inadvertently created a Sora that's been influenced by Ven and Vanitas…Which is quite the accomplish considering I started writing this before I knew anything about Vanitas…Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

-Begin chapter-

"So, where do we go to take the new path?" asked Aladdin.

"Well, if this is like last time…Oh, there it is." Sora pointed at a swirling purple vortex. "We have to fly through that." Aladdin looked at the vortex.

"Is that safe?"

"You should probably fasten your seatbelts," advised Sora.

"The what?" The three familiar with the concept quickly demonstrated by putting on theirs. "Oh." Aladdin copied them. "What's this for?"

"It'll keep you from falling out," explained Goofy. Then they flew through the vortex. The gummi ship was immediately flipped upside-down and started skipping. Then it did cartwheels for several minutes. Then it got ejected in a strange looking part of innerspace with more Heartless ships than usual. Also, Abu was wrapped around Goofy's head. Didn't have any seatbelts for him.

"That was sort of like riding Carpet when we were escaping from the Cave of Wonders," said Aladdin. He took it well. They continued on until they reached a new world. It had a large castle and some waterfalls.

"Here we are. Donald, do we need to transform?"

"Nah, this looks like a fairly normal world. We can go as we are."

"Are you staying here Abu?" asked Aladdin. Abu nodded very quickly. "I thought so. Don't mess with the controls. We don't wanna get stuck here." Abu nodded. Then the boys beamed down to the world.

The surface of the world looked a bit odd. The water was solid, but not frozen and there were rock platforms floating up and down and back and forth. This wasn't what caught Sora's attention though. It was the castle in the distance. It looked just like the one he'd seen on the slide in Tarzan's world.

"I know this place…"

"Really, that's strange," said Goofy. Sora put his hand to his chest. His chest felt…strange all of a sudden.

"I feel this warmth inside, right here."

"Aw, you're just hungry," said Donald. Sora gave Donald a look.

"Hey! I'm being serious here!" And then they heard a loud roar close by. Everyone snapped to attention. Sora frowned. That had been a roar of pain. He hopped onto one of the platforms and closed his eyes to see if he could sense or hear anything.

"No vessel, no help from the Heartless…" Sora's eyes flew open. He knew that voice! "So tell me, how'd you get here?" Sora started for the voice.

"Sora! Wait up!"

"I simply believed." That voice he didn't recognize. "Nothing more to it. When our world fell into darkness, Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again no matter what the cost. I believed I would find her. So, here I am. She must be here. I will have her back!"

"Take her if you can." Sora got to the top of the ledge just in time to see Riku slash through…Sora wasn't sure what to call it. It had horns, fangs, a muzzle, brown fur, and seemed to be a combination of different types of animals. It had been talking like a human though. Whatever it was, it collapsed, with blood leaking from its body. Sora pulled out his daggers as Riku raised his eyes to look at Sora. "About time you got here." Sora rushed Riku slashing up with one knife, which Riku blocked. The other knife was going Riku's neck but he dodged it. "You know, we've always been rivals, haven't we? Ever since we met. You've always pushed me and I've always pushed you." Sora did a side kick to Riku's ribs. Riku caught this and swung at Sora's head with his sword. Sora leaned back to avoid it. "But it all ends here. There can't be two Keyblade masters." Sora did a roundhouse kick at Riku's head with his free foot. Riku released the foot he was holding and jumped back to avoid the kick. Sora broke his fall and rolled to a crouching position.

"What the heck are you talking about?" Riku smirked.

"I think it's time to let the Keyblade choose its true master." Riku held out the hand with the sword. The Keyblade disappeared from Sora's back and replaced the sword in Riku's hand, only it was in its Kingdom Key form. This happened just as the rest of the boys reached them. Their eyes widened.

"Huh?"

"What? !"

"How did he…?" Riku snorted.

"Maleficent was right. You don't have what it takes to save Kairi." Wait a minute. Did he say Maleficent? "It's up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door…and change the world."

"Maleficent? She told you that? You idiot! You don't even know anything about her and you just trusted her like that? !"

"Better than trusting you. You replaced us."

"What are you talking about?"

"After our world was destroyed, you immediately went and made two new friends to replace me and Kairi." Sora gave Riku an 'You're an idiot' look.

"Riku, you are an idiot. Did it ever occur to you that that it would be easier to find a missing person if you teamed up with someone else? That's why we fought all those Heartless and traveled to all those worlds. You abandoned me long before I ever abandoned you."

"Shut up! You were just a delivery boy. Your part's over now."

"That overglorified key is supposed to be some sort of ultimate weapon, but it's only as good as the one who has it. You really think that having that key will make any sort of difference?"

"You're just jealous you don't get to be Kairi's hero." Sora's eyes widened. Was Riku doing all this just because he wanted to be a hero? He thought swinging around a key and opening a stupid door would make everyone happy? !

"There's no such-" Sora's head suddenly erupted into pain. He grabbed his head. It felt like it was going to explode.

"_You are very difficult to find."_

"_Who're you? !"_

"_You honestly don't recognize my voice? Has it really been that long?"_

"_You…! No! Go away! You're not real!"_ Everything went black.

Aladdin stared at the now unconscious Sora. "What just happened?" Even Riku looked surprised.

"He's fine! Sora's just being weird," said Riku. Donald sighed and walked over to Riku.

"Goofy. Let's go. We have to remember our mission." Aladdin and Goofy's eyes widened.

"Oh! Well, I know the king told us to follow the key and all…But…" Goofy looked down, like he wasn't sure what to do. Aladdin looked between the two in shock.

"You…You can't seriously be thinking about going with this guy! You know he works with the Heartless! If anything, he's our enemy! He won't help you find your king!"

"Still, the king told us to follow the one with the Keyblade," said Donald. "That's the only clue we have. We have to follow that order if we want to find him." Donald didn't sound completely sure, but Goofy winced and walked over to Donald and Riku.

"You're going too?" Goofy nodded.

"I'm sorry but we have to find the king."

"Well, I'm staying here." Aladdin walked over to Sora's form. "I'll tell Sora you left when he wakes up."

"Could you tell him we're sorry?" Aladdin thought that was rich, but nodded anyway. They did seem kind of upset about leaving.

"Those are some friends you found," muttered Riku. Then he walked away toward the castle with Donald and Goofy following him. Aladdin sighed.

"Well, this sucks," he said, using a phrase he'd picked up while traveling. He paused as he noticed the odd creature was moving.

"Hey, you shouldn't be moving! He sliced right through you!"

"Why…Why did you…you come here?"

"You can talk?" It coughed.

"I came here to fight for Belle. And though I am on my own, I will fight. I won't leave without her. That's why I'm here." Aladdin paused for a moment before nodding.

"I can relate to that. I think someone I'm looking for is here too." He looked over at Sora. "Him too…" Sora suddenly groaned and pushed himself up. "Sora! Are you okay?" Sora groaned again and stood up.

"My head hurts…"

"You just suddenly collapsed! You must have hit your head!" Aladdin pulled out a potion and forced it into Sora's hands. Then he pulled out a hi-potion and turned towards the creature. "You should have one too. Riku got you pretty bad." Sora tensed and looked around for Riku. He frowned when he realized something.

"Where are Donald and Goofy?" Aladdin winced from where he was explaining what the hi-potion did.

"They kind of left with Riku." Sora looked at Aladdin in shock.

"What?"

"Yeah, Donald said they were ordered by their king to follow the guy with the Keyblade, and since Riku somehow took it from you…" Aladdin trailed off. He didn't needed to finish the sentence. Sora's head started hurting even more, along with his chest.

"Oh…" Sora felt something wet on his face. He felt it and felt his face. It was coming from his eyes. "Is there something wrong with my eyes?" Aladdin gave him a weird look.

"You're crying. You don't seem like the type, but…"

"I'm…crying…? Sora licked some of the water. It was salty. "It's been so long since I cried…I don't even remember what it feels like…Why am I crying for them? ! I knew they were only following me because I had that key! I knew that they would leave! So why do I…?" Aladdin winced. Sora was a very dangerous and scary warrior…but it looked like he could still act like a confused kid.

"They said they were sorry. They didn't seem to like it either. I think they just went with him because they want to find their king and they didn't know what else to do." Sora winced and put his hand to his chest.

"There's something wrong with my heart."

"What do you mean?"

"It hurts just like it did when my father tried to kill me, but I haven't been stabbed…" That made Aladdin's eyes widen. Now he knew that Sora wasn't thinking straight. That was not something he would say out of the blue like that.

"_You decided to let someone into your heart again?"_ Sora's eyes widened and he spun around wildly looking around. _"That was foolish of you."_

"Sora? What are you doing?"

"I thought I heard…No never mind. I must be hearing things since I'm upset." Sora glanced at Aladdin. "Why're you still here?"

"You're my friend. I'm not gonna just leave you here."

"My friend?" Sora laughed. "You barely even know me. I knew Riku for seven years, and he abandoned me when a witch told him some simple lies that he could have easily seen through if he wanted to. I obviously have horrible taste in friends, so how do I know I can trust you?"

"Well…What about that girl from Neverland? What was her name? Kairi? She seemed okay. You have other friends you're looking for too, right?"

"They're all psychopaths." Aladdin winced. Sora frowned. "But…Kimihiro was always nice to me. He's weird, but he has morals. He never hurt me on purpose, and he'd take care of me when I got hurt."

"See? You have friends. Riku just…is messed up or something. Donald and Goofy…were just being stupid…Man, it's weird, me giving you a pep talk." Sora snorted.

"Fine, I'll give you a chance."

"Great, so…" Aladdin looked over at the creature. Sora followed his gaze. "You mind us tagging along? I've gotten better at fighting, but I don't think I can get through here on my own. And Sora…uh…Can you still fight?" Sora nodded and winced.

"Yeah, but I wish my head would stop hurting. It shouldn't affect my fighting ability, but it's distracting even for me." Aladdin turned back to the creature.

"You're still hurt pretty badly…Maybe we can help each other," said Aladdin.

"…Fine," growled the creature.

"Okay, then I'm Aladdin, and this is Sora. What do you go by?"

"I am a beast. If you need to call me anything, just call me that." Aladdin sweatdropped.

"Not very social."

"You're right. It is weird seeing you taking charge." Sora heard laughter in his head and grabbed it as pain erupted again. "Ow…"

"Do you need another potion?"

"That's not gonna help." He dropped his hands. "This is gonna be unpleasant."

So, they had a three member party, a Tsviet with a severe migraine, a…beast, and a thief trying to keep everyone's spirits up. They got onto a lift that took them to the castle. It seemed to be falling apart. A bunch of huge Heatless appeared. They were purplish, looked draconian with wings but no arms, and the Heartless crest on its chest. _"Wyvern, never touch the ground."_ "Okay, then." Sora fired Fira at one of them. One tried to swoop in to grab Aladdin, but Beast tackled it and ripped it apart. That gave Sora an idea. He used Gravira and grounded a nearby Wyvern. Beast attacked that one too. Sora continued to use Gravira on Wyverns to ground them for Beast and cast spells while Beast dealt with the grounded Wyvern. Aladdin didn't need to do much in this fight, which gave him time to think.

"I just thought of something." Sora raised an eyebrow. "We know pretty much nothing about each other. Maybe we can talk about our lives and stuff."

"No thanks," said Sora. He and Beast started heading for a large double door. Aladdin sighed and rubbed his head.

"This could take a while." He ran forward toward the other two. Then three Heartless appeared. They were humanoid, but the chest and arms were larger than they should be. The most noticeable feature was the shield in their left hands. It had what looked like the face of a large three-eyed dog on it, and was moving.

"_Defenders. Shield is in control. Front attacks neutralized. Can bite, shoot fireballs, and spray ice."_ "Don't attack the front! The shield is the part that's in control!" After shouting his advice, Sora jumped behind one in the back and hit it with a Stop. Then he hit it with as many spells and slashes as he could.

Beast had an easier time. He actually ignored Sora's advice. He just grabbed the nearest shield, and slammed the attached Heartless into a nearby wall with a roar. Then he slashed the body behind it with his claws. When you're as freakishly strong as Beast, you don't need to worry much about strategy.

Aladdin was having the most difficult time of the three. He did not have magic or insane strength. What he had were acrobatics. That made it easy to dodge the attacks since it was a slow Heartless. He could get behind it easily too. Still he felt he was doing better than when he first got involved. Then Beast suddenly bowled the Defender over, making Aladdin jump about a foot in the air. "Warn me before you do that!" To the side, Stop wore off and all the attacks Sora did suddenly took effect. The Heartless instantly vanished. Sora tapped the door.

"It's locked." Beast started pounding on the door.

"So, you said your dad tried to kill you?"

"I'd appreciate it if you forgot I said that."

"Sure…I never knew my dad. I just have a dagger that supposedly belonged to him. My mom died when I was really young, and I was on the street stealing to survive. That's pretty much all I did until I met you guys."

"I don't think you're gonna get through that door," said Sora. Beast stopped trying to destroy the door, panting slightly. "We don't have any way to unlock it so we'll have to find something else."

They started backtracking to see if they could find any way to open the door. "I think I might have been a bastard. I mean mom worked all the time to try and get me food. There was no help from anyone, not even neighbors, and they're usually willing to help a widow who's fallen on hard times. And she was pretty so she could have found a husband maybe, but if people think you're a whore no one wants to marry you."

"Those crystals over there might be something important," said Sora. They walked through a wrought iron gate and over two a couple of odd glowing crystals. When Sora touched the first one it stopped glowing but that was all that happened. Touching the second one caused a lift to appear that they got on.

"You know, this has probably been the most significant event of my life. Before this, all I ever did was try to go day to day trying to survive, except for the time when I met Abu, but that's another story." The lift had taken them to more solid looking water and some floating bubbles of water. Several Shadows and what looked like grinning black spheres with ears and tails appeared.

"_Darkball. Can turn swiftly compact and expand. Capable of teleportation."_ Sora calmly beheaded a Shadow. "Those balloon things can teleport." Beast quickly tore one apart. Aladdin started slashing at the Shadows around them. Sora attacked the other Darkball. These were easier to deal with than the other Heartless they'd run into in this place.

"So, where do we go now?" asked Aladdin. There wasn't really anywhere else to go. He absentmindedly leaned against the lower floating bubble. It instantly sucked him up and sent him into the water encased in another bubble. It was something so the other two touched the bubble and were sent flying. They came out in a dark place which Aladdin was exploring. "Oh you came." Aladdin turned toward a section of wall that was lighter in color and had some bars in it. "That wall isn't very thick. Beast, you might be able to break through it." Beast let out a roar and demolished the wall. They walked through it and found only another bubble which they jumped in. It took them to yet another dark passage. Aladdin walked over to a slightly cracked gray wall and tapped it. "This wall can be destroyed too." Beast tore it down. All that was in there were a Darkball, some Shadows, and a couple of treasure chests. They quickly took care of the Heartless, grabbed the chest contents and walked back out. "Sora?"

"Hm?"

"When we find Riku, Donald, and Goofy, what are you gonna do?"

"Kill them." Sora pressed an odd looking device on a wall. It turned out to be a switch that moved some of the gratings that blocked their way forward.

"_Don't do it!"_ Sora jumped slightly. The other two tensed slightly like something was about to attack.

"You two okay?" _"Great, now I'm hearing Kairi again…"_

"You didn't sense anything?"

"No."

"Well, I think you should give Donald and Goofy another chance. They didn't look like they were very happy about leaving." Sora pushed another button. "I don't think they like Riku either."

"_What foolish comrades you have."_

"_Great I'm hearing voices that sound like my evil father and Kairi. Is the stress causing me to develop schizophrenia?"_ As soon as Sora thought that, a piercing pain shot through Sora's head, causing him to grab it and shout again. Luckily, this time it only lasted for a second. He shook his head.

"You okay?" asked Aladdin.

"Yeah, my migraine just got bad again." Sora noticed Aladdin was giving him a weird look. "What?"

"Your eyes looked weird for a moment there."

"They always look weird."

"Yeah, but, never mind." Aladdin turned to Beast. "If you got betrayed, what would you do?"

"It depends on the circumstances." Really, the fact that he responded was a minor accomplishment in itself. Sora pushed a third button that moved another section of grating.

"Circumstances…So we need to think about why they did it…Well, they wanted to find this king of theirs. It wasn't a bad reason then. It was good and maybe…what's the word? Starts with a p. I learned it from Yuffie when we were talking about our careers." Sora gave Aladdin a weird look as he stepped on a button on the floor.

"Aladdin. You're a thief. You steal for a living."

"Yeah, well, so does Yuffie. Patriotic! That's the word! I mean, Agrabah wouldn't be able to function without the royal family, even though you got your bad eggs, like Jafar." They walked through the recently opened grate and jumped into another bubble. It led to what looked like a room with yet another button on it. Aladdin was closest when they came out so he was the one who pressed it. It caused part of the floor to start rising. They quickly got on it before it got too high and climbed onto a ledge. There was another button. "You're listening to me, right?" A Defender showed up. They quickly took care of it and Sora hit the button. Several gears above it started turning. "Cause I'm coming up with most of this on the spot. I'm not sure I'll be able to repeat it if you're not listening."

"You're giving me all sorts of reasons not to kill Goofy and Donald next time we see them."

"Is it working?"

"No."

"_Hmph, you sure?"_

"Yes I'm sure!"

"I didn't say anything …" Sora grimaced. Yeah, he really needed to see someone about those voices. There was another stabbing pain in his head. And those migraines. He needed to see someone about those migraines. There was a sudden loud slamming noise that cut off his line of thought. He immediately focused on their surroundings and realized they'd reached a dead end.

"Nothing else we can do here," said Sora. "We should head back and see if that changed anything."

"Hey, Sora?" Sora sighed. He honestly didn't understand why Aladdin was trying so hard to defend the two anthros.

"Yes?"

"Next time we run into them, if they change their mind and join back up with us, will you not kill them?" Sora paused.

"They haven't attacked us. If they change sides without raising a hand against us, I'll consider it." Sora still planned on killing them, but he wanted Aladdin to stop trying to convince him to spare them.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the castle, six young women were in crystal containers of some kind with what looked like some kind of rock growing up around their lower bodies. One of the women was Jasmine. Another was Alice. In the middle of the hallway, yet another girl was floating in a sort of oval-shaped force field with some dark energy smoking from her body. This girl was Kairi. Maleficent calmly walked past the girls and up the stairs. There were another set of stairs that led up to a platform with a huge heart-shaped vortex set in the wall. Maleficent did not go up these stairs. Instead, she turned to look upon the young women trapped in the hallway. "O purest of hearts!" Maleficent raised her arms. "Reveal to me the Keyhole!" A pink light gathered in front of the chests of the women. Then beams shot out of the light, meeting several feet above Kairi. Where they met, a bright light formed and shot a beam into the vortex in the wall. But no light came from Kairi.

Sora, Aladdin, and Beast had made their way back to the wrought iron gate, taking care of the Heartless they ran into along the way. So far, they hadn't found anything that seemed different. All that was left was to check the big doors that had been locked before. Actually, when they pushed on the doors, they did move a bit. They pushed the doors open as quickly as they could and started walking down a dark hallway. They walked out into a large chamber with stairs and a fountain in front of them. The Beast growled.

"Be on your guard. They're close, I can feel them."

"I can too," said Sora. Aladdin reached for his sword.

"I'm ready. Even if it's Donald and Goofy!" Beast and Sora suddenly stiffened and turned around so Aladdin did too. Standing in the hallway was a pretty brunette woman in a yellow ball gown.

"Belle? !"

"That's Belle?" Then 'Belle' was engulfed in dark energy and turned into a Shadow. Aladdin winced. "Tough luck. Didn't know they could do that…" Aladdin risked a glance at Beast who was shaking slightly. Then Beast let out a roar and leapt at the Shadow. "Hey! Wait!" Aladdin grabbed onto Beast's fur in passing. Only problem was that it didn't slow Beast down and resulted into Aladdin getting dragged into the hall with Beast. Then the doors closed. Sora sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Why am I not surprised?" Sora turned to look at Riku (not holding the Keyblade for some reason), Donald, and Goofy. "Smart move though. Picking us off one at a time is much easier than fighting us in a group."

"Quit while you can." Sora laughed a humorless laugh.

"I don't quit. It was beaten into me before I even came to Destiny Islands. As long as I can still move, I'll continue to fight. It's what makes a Tsviet a Tsviet." Riku snorted.

"Not a very good survival instinct."

"True, but that's probably why I'm here now. Someone with common sense would've left to go look for help, but Kairi is here. I won't leave until I get her."

"Then the Darkness will destroy you." Then Riku's clothes changed. It was now a sort of black/blue ribbed(?) jumpsuit with purple boots, blue gloves, blue knee pads, blue chest and abs, red forearms, a heartless symbol without the X on the chest, and a white ragged cloth around his waist held together by a couple of criss-crossing belt sort of things. There was a belt around his waist too. It was a hard outfit to describe. Then Riku summoned the Keyblade and Sora pulled out his daggers.

"_Keyblade, hm?"_ Then Sora's head burst into pain. He grabbed his head and screamed. Then he experienced a sensation he could not identify. His body tensed and nearly fell over before straightening and looking at his daggers.

"Not my style." He tossed the daggers behind him, making the three on the other side of the room blink.

"Sora? Are you feeling okay?" asked Goofy. Sora looked over at them with a raised eyebrow, and they realized that Sora's eyes were different. The pupils were now slit with the iris immediately around them a striking shade of blue-green. Riku summoned the Keyblade. Sora's eyes immediately went to it.

"That looks like the closest thing to a sword here." Then the Keyblade was in Sora's hand instead of Riku's and was back in its Olympia form. Sora looked it over distastefully. "This is a legendary weapon? It looks like a toy." The others were just staring from Riku to Sora and back again.

"You shouldn't be able to do that!" said Riku. "I was able to get the Keyblade! I'm stronger than you!" Sora snorted.

"Sora had absolutely no interest in this weapon, so it's not surprising you were able to take it from him." Sora looked over the Keyblade like it was the first time he'd ever seen it. "The one with the strongest heart, which I suppose means the strongest will, is able to use this. There are very few people with a will stronger than my own. It's a bit too cartoonish for my tastes though." He flicked the Keyblade and it changed form. Now it was slightly longer than its Pumpkinhead form and in the shape of a katana-style sword. The handle guards were a couple of thick wires with what looked like wings attached to the inside. What looked like a fireball of some kind was attached to the end of the sword. There was a red tie at the end of the handle with a small black wing at the end. Sora smirked. "Much better." Then he was behind Riku. Everyone's eyes widened, and they were all knocked into walls with a flaming slash before any of them could move. Sora snorted. "Pathetic." Sora started walking towards Riku. "You get your hands on a strong weapon and you think you're invincible." Sora stopped. "But you don't know how to use it properly. You are playing at a dangerous game, boy."

"Don't call me boy!" Riku frowned. "Wait a minute. I'm older than you."

"I'm not Sora." And with that, Sora brought the altered Keyblade down toward Riku, but he managed to roll out of the way, although he was in pain if the way he was holding himself was any indication.

"What are you waiting for? ! Heal me already? !" Sora was in front of Donald now. Donald's eyes widened as the Keyblade stabbed toward his chest.

*Snickt!*

Donald winced…then realized he didn't feel like he'd had his chest impaled. He cracked his eye open. The Keyblade was poking into his chest slightly, but that was it. Sora's left hand was still holding the Keyblade handle. His right hand had grabbed the blade part of the Keyblade and was visibly bleeding. Sora was gritting his teeth and didn't seem able to move. "Get out of my head! You bastard!" Sora stabbed the Keyblade into the ground, panting heavily. Then he fell over sideways unconscious. The Keyblade disappeared and then reappeared in Riku's hand.

"I don't know what that was, but I am not letting him do that again." An orb of dark fire formed in Riku's hand and was fired at Sora. Goofy suddenly darted in front of Sora and blocked the fireball with his shield.

"Don't you hurt Sora!" Well that was unexpected, especially with the nasty, somewhat burnt slash wound on his back. Riku frowned.

"You would betray your king?"

"Not on your life!" Goofy glanced back at Sora. "But I'm not gonna betray Sora, either 'cause he's become one of my best buds after all we've been through together! And I want him to trust me as much as I trust him." Goofy looked at Donald. "See ya later, Donald. Could ya tell the king I'm really sorry?" Donald took a moment to look between Riku and Sora before taking a deep breath and standing up.

"We'll tell him together." The two friends smiled at each other.

"Guess you're stuck with us Sora." Riku frowned.

"You two got hit much harder than me when he went berserk just now." It was true. Whatever Riku's suit was made of, it seemed to double as armor. "And your weapons are nowhere near as powerful as mine."

"_They're defending me? Why?"_

"We'll manage, somehow."

"_It's because they're your friends."_

"Right!"

"_But they betrayed me…"_

"Your funeral."

"_It was a mistake. Everyone makes them."_ Sora heard footsteps, Riku was heading for them.

"_He'll kill you. I suggest you stop fighting me."_

"_Don't! He'll kill everyone here!"_

"_He can't even move."_

"_Whose fault is that? !"_ Sora tried to open his eyes, move his fingers, something, but his body wasn't moving. _"They're still there…"_ It made his chest feel oddly warm. It felt familiar, like he'd felt it before a long time ago.

"_See? You don't want to kill them."_ Time seemed to slow down for him.

"_Tsviets aren't supposed to care about others. We are merciless killers."_

"_But you care about the Tsviets! And Riku! And me! You could care about others the same way they care about you!"_ The Keyblade started sparkling. Riku looked down at it.

"Huh?"

"They Keyblade's acting weird again," noticed Goofy. Donald groaned.

"Now what?"

"_Kairi? !"_ The Keyblade disappeared from Riku's hand and reappeared in Sora's hand, once again in its Olympia form. Riku stared at his hand in shock.

"How…? He's not even conscious! How does he have the Keyblade? !"

"_And how are you in my head? !"_ Riku winced and cradled his chest.

"What did he do, break a rib? He only hit me once!" He coughed up some blood.

"_Considering who was controlling my body, you're lucky that's all he did to you."_

"Heal!" Donald started healing himself, Goofy, and Sora. Riku summoned his Soul Eater Sword.

"This doesn't change anything! I just have to get through you two now!" The anthros' eyes widened. Donald used another Cure on Sora. Sora still didn't stir. The two were on their own.

"Any ideas?" asked Donald.

"I have to stay close to Sora until he wakes up," said Goofy. Then Riku was on them and slashing at the two. Goofy managed to block all the strikes that came at him and Sora, but he couldn't quite extend his defense to Donald. Donald decided to get some distance from the group. That way if Riku stayed over there, he wouldn't have to worry about being attacked. He was a long-distance fighter anyway.

"Fire!" Riku jumped back. Fortunately, Donald had done it at an angle that kept it from hitting Goofy or Sora. Riku jumped back in immediately went back in, trying to attack Sora but being blocked by Goofy. That's all Goofy was going to be able to do with how fast Riku was attacking. Donald sighed. This seemed to be a test of endurance, and he wasn't sure how long they would be able to last. "Thunder!" Riku dodged this too, but the door behind Donald was creaking open. As Riku was leaping back forward, he was too focused to notice that Aladdin was heading for him until he was right in front of them. Riku instinctively sent him flying with one of his dark fire attacks and nearly fell over. Riku's sword clattered to the ground and his shoulder erupted into pain. He glanced down and saw a sword going into the upper right part of his chest just below his shoulder. He stumbled back into a dark portal just in time to avoid being pounced on by Beast. Said party member let out an angry roar when he realized he'd missed his target. Goofy let out a sigh of relief. Donald quickly headed over to where Aladdin had landed. Aladdin's vest had mostly been burned away, but he only had a minor burn on the left side of his chest where Riku had hit him. He seemed to be in a state of shock though.

"Did I just kill Riku?" Aladdin seemed sickened by the thought. Then again, he may be a thief, but he seemed to be the type that tried to avoid getting someone killed. It was probably a good thing he was bothered by the fact he might have killed someone.

"Beats me." Donald used a quick Cure to heal the burn. The vest was beyond repair. Aladdin looked over at Sora.

"Is Sora dead?" Beast sniffed the unconscious Tsviet before looking at the two anthros.

"Did his heart win this battle?" Goofy scratched his head.

"I'm not sure. He got the Keyblade back, but he won't wake up." Donald came over and put a couple of fingers on Sora's neck.

"He's still alive." There was a collective sigh of relief.

"Is this like that time in Neverland?" asked Aladdin. "I mean he did use his limit break earlier today in that tournament."

"Nah, he didn't do much of anything," said Donald. "He just went crazy and then suddenly collapsed."

"He called himself Sora," said Goofy.

"So?"

"Maybe he was just someone else for a moment there."

"Like a possession?" asked Aladdin.

"Uh, sort of." Aladdin walked over to Sora's knives and picked them up.

"Do you think Sora will mind if I borrow these? Since Riku has my sword?"

"…_Fine. But only until I wake up."_

"I dunno. Sora seems to really like them," said Goofy.

"Hold on." Donald shook Sora several times and then tapped him a few times with his staff. "He's not waking up. Go ahead and use them." Aladdin quickly stuck the daggers into his sash.

"We need to continue on," said Beast. "There is nothing here."

"Yeah, that's true, but we can't just leave Sora here." In the end, they secured Sora to Beast's back.

"_This is embarrassing. Good thing I can't see how ridiculous this looks."_

The boys went up the stairs to the central passage. There was something that looked like a door with the Heartless crest on it at the end of the passage. "We can't open that," explained Goofy. "Riku just made it appear and disappear when we needed to go through." Beast started pounding at the door. Whatever it was made of, it wasn't going to give.

"_Better try something else."_

"Maybe there's a key around here somewhere," said Aladdin. "Most doors have one." Everyone looked at Sora, but his Keyblade had disappeared when they'd secured him to Beast's back. Aladdin started patting the door down. "Hm? Hey, these sections in the crest are indented. It looks like you might be able to put something in them."

"Anything else?" asked Donald. Aladdin shook his head.

"If it had hinges, we might be able to remove them and get through, but it doesn't. I wonder if we have to find another switch…"

"Let's look around a bit," said Goofy. To the left of the blocked passage was a library. The shelves were at least 10 feet high and filled entirely with books. The shelves completely filled the large room. Goofy picked up a book that was lying on the floor. "Somebody left this book out!"

"That's not important," said Donald. They continued on, but quickly came to a dead-end created by the bookshelves.

"We could try climbing over them," suggested Aladdin.

"Oh, Khama! This is where the book came from." Goofy slid the book into its proper place on the shelf. The shelf suddenly slid sideways, revealing stairs and at least one other book shelf.

"How did you do that?" asked Donald. Goofy scratched his head.

"Ya know, that's a good question."

"It must be like a secret passage," said Aladdin. "Except this just rearranges things a bit." Nothing around immediately caught their eyes. Aladdin discovered that a small section of a column could be spun around and found an elixir in one of the sections. They went up the stairs and found another couple of the columns that could be spun around. There was also a set of doors that were locked, but since Sora still wasn't moving, they couldn't use the Keyblade to unlock it.

"Hey, this book is in the wrong place!" Goofy pulled a green book out from between a group of yellow books. "'Mava vol. 6.' Did any of you guys see any other Mava books?"

"I can't read," said Beast.

"Neither can I," said Aladdin. Who'd have thought they'd have that in common?

"You're the only one who's been paying attention to the books," muttered Donald. "We've got more important things to worry about right now."

"What if it opens another passage?"

"_He's got a point there Donald."_

"_Ironic that he's the one who noticed that first."_

"I don't know where the 'Mava' books are, but there's a book on top of that bookcase," said Aladdin, pointing over at a bookshelf with a yellow book on it. "If it could move another bookcase, then I'll go get it." Aladdin climbed up the bookcase, grabbed the book, and climbed back down. "So, what's it say?"

"'Azal vol. 3.'"

"Are those around here?"

"No idea."

"Hey, I think I see them down there." Goofy was pointing over the railing into a section that was completely closed off from the outside. Of course, being Goofy, he fell over the edge of the railing with one of his weird yells. The others ran over to the railing.

"Goofy!"

"Hey, I found the M shelf." They sweatdropped as Goofy put the book in its proper place. "Hey, this one doesn't go here." He pulled a blue book out of the space where vol. 3 should've been.

"Can you find some way out of there?" asked Donald.

"Uh, hold on." Goofy started walking around the small area and stopped next to a shelf. "Found it!"

"A way out?"

"No, the S shelf." Goofy slipped the blue book into the shelf. The shelf suddenly slid to the left. Goofy walked through the opening and looked around. "Hey guys! Come on down!"

"I think we might need to move around the bookshelves," said Aladdin.

"Looks like it," said Donald. "Let's see if we can find a place to put that book." They all went down and looked for the shelf to put Azal in. It was near the entrance to the library. That shelf slid to the left. After looking around briefly, they found a yellow book that said 'Nahara vol. 5.' This went in a bookshelf upstairs. It slid to the side, revealing another bookshelf behind it. There was a green book out of place among some blue books. It was the other missing Mava volume. They quickly ran it downstairs to put it in its proper place. The shelf swung open, like a door, revealing more bookshelves and a table with a chair pulled up to it. 'Hafet vol. 4' was on the table. This book was run upstairs to the previously hidden bookshelf and put in its proper place. The bookshelf opened like a door, revealing a passage. Since it must have been hidden for a reason, they walked in to see what it was.

"Wow…" It was several stories of lifts. Some glowing lines were cutting through the air. Aladdin extended a finger towards a space between two lines and encountered something solid.

"There's some sort of invisible wall here."

"This looks like a maze," said Donald. "Where do they go anyway?"

They decided to explore the lifts later and returned to the library. After a bit of searching, they found one last book that they placed in the empty Theon space. The bookcase slid to the side, revealing a large red square button. When it was pressed, the closed doors made a clicking noise. A quick test by Goofy showed they were now unlocked.

The doors led to a second floor above where Riku had been fought. There was a hanging platform with a blue fire burning in the center There were also a lot of weird statues on the walls.

"Now what?" asked Donald.

"Is this writing?"

"Huh?"

"There's something carved in this statue," explained Aladdin. Donald took a look.

"'Prove your strength by attacking the containers?' Huh?" Beast immediately smashed the jars on either side of the statue. "What was that for? !" That statue sunk into the floor a bit and made a clicking sound.

"Do you hear water?" asked Aladdin. "I swear I can hear running water."

"Hey, the fountain's running!" said Goofy, pointing down below. "It wasn't running before. I think I see something in it."

"We'll worry about that later," said Donald.

"Hey, candles." Aladdin walked over to one and tried to lift it. "Huh, that's weird. Is it stuck to the table?"

"Why do you want a candle?" asked Donald.

"Some of the places here are pretty dark, right Beast?"

"…Yes."

"I thought maybe it would be nice to have something in case we end up in a small dark space again." Aladdin jerked at the candle again. "Except this candle isn't moving. Is it stuck to the table? It doesn't look like it's ever been lit…" Donald frowned and walked over.

"These are magic candles. They're not for providing light. They can only serve some sort of specific purpose. That's why you can't move them."

"Well, what do they do?"

"No idea, it could be all sorts of things, probably something minor. The worst it could do is an alarm or a trap."

"We could check. I don't think a trap's gonna do much at this point."

"Yeah…" Donald quickly lit the two candles. Nothing happened. "Must be some more candles." There were a couple more sets of candles surrounding the fire. After Donald had lit all the candles, the suspended fire suddenly went out.

"Hey, there's something in the fireplace," said Goofy.

"It's called a brazier," corrected Beast.

"Oh, there's something in the brazier."

"I'll get it." Aladdin jumped onto the brazier, grabbed the item and jumped back. "I don't know what it is." It was gray and shaped oddly. It slightly resembled a very odd V-bird with some notches on the lower wings. Aladdin tucked it into his sash. "So, what do we do now?"

"Maybe something else here will do something." They walked around and came to a stone with a lightning bolt on it. Donald used a Thunder on it, which caused two sheets of metal with lightning bolts on them to lower to allow easier access to the brazier. Not really necessary, but they also seemed to double as elevators, which could be useful. There was also a statue with what looked like a bull head on it that Beast threw to the ground below. It shattered and left behind what looked like a green fleur-de-fleur. The next statue had an inscription that read 'O mighty one…Prove your strength by moving me.' Beast pushed it to the side for a few feet and it sunk down into the ground with a click.

"I think that's everything up here," said Goofy.

"Let's go grab that green thing then," said Aladdin. They all got on the 'elevator' and traveled down to grab the fleur-de-fleur.

"Oh!" Goofy walked over to the fountain, which was running now like he said. Goofy reached into it and pulled out a curved pink object. "I thought I saw something in there!"

"Hey…" Donald looked between the two items. "You still got that gray thing?" Aladdin pulled it out.

"Yeah, why?"

"These look familiar to you?" Now that Donald mentioned it, there was something familiar about them. Aladdin and Goofy put their pieces down next to green piece.

"It looks like the Heartless crest," noted Aladdin. "Part of it's missing though."

"Wonder what they're for," mused Goofy. Aladdin grinned.

"I have an idea." They went to the odd door and slipped the three pieces into the socket. "I think these are some kind of key or something. I bet it will open if we find the last piece. Luckily, they found the last piece in a treasure chest that had appeared sometime since after the fight with Riku. When they put it in the door, the door slid open. "Great! Let's see if there's anything in here…"

Meanwhile, Riku was limping down a corridor. He was leaning on the wall, and his left hand was up trying to staunch the blood welling up from the wound. Even though he hadn't been able to remove the sword, there was a trail of blood leading to where he'd used a portal to enter the corridor. He'd been weakened to the point that he'd transformed back to his normal outfit. He coughed up some blood. He wiped it away with a grimace. "Why?" He collapsed to his knees. Frustrated, he weakly punched the floor. "It was mine." More blood dribbled out of Riku's lips. It might be a good thing he left the sword in after all. Riku wondered if he was going to bleed to death.

"Know this." Riku jerked his head up and winced. Even that hurt. The speaker was a cloaked man surrounded by a blue glow. The same cloaked man Sora had seen on Destiny Islands. "The heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade."

"What? You're saying my heart is weaker than his?"

"For that instance, it was." Riku grit his teeth.

"He wasn't even in control of his body though!" He instantly had a bloody coughing fit.

"That is true, but he is no longer possessed by the shadow of his past. Still, the way he is now, it would be difficult to regain the Keyblade from him." Riku winced. That might be difficult, especially since he was having trouble moving his right arm. "However, you can become stronger." Riku looked up at the man. "You showed no fear in stepping through the door to darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness, and your heart will grow even stronger." The last part had a slightly sinister tone to it, but Riku was starting to get pretty lightheaded so he missed it. Actually, his vision was getting pretty blurry too. Riku tried to shake his head to clear it, but that caused more pain. Riku growled. It seemed like every time he moved he was in pain. He had to do something to get out of this pain!

"What should I do?"

"It's really quite simple. Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being become darkness itself." Riku started glowing green as he tried to do as the man instructed. He looked up as the man started walking towards him. And then, he felt nothing.

Back with the boys, the door turned out to lead to the same confusing lift room, with a lift nearly right in front of them. There was also a passage a little bit away. Since the lifts looked confusing, they decided to go explore whatever was on the other side of the passage.

Turns out it led outside to a set of stairs overlooking the entrance of the castle, they climbed up the stairs while fighting the Wyverns that were attacking them. They had to be careful not to fall off. After they messed with a couple of crystals, they managed to get a lift that took them up to another floor. There wasn't much there, just a set of stairs, another crystal switch, and a large lift. Activating the switch teleported them into the lift as it started to move to the left.

"How is Sora doing?" asked Goofy.

"_Other than the fact that I can't move, I'm having mental conversations with my evil father and Kairi, and I can't kill you two, I'm fine."_

"_No killing them! They just made a mistake!"_

The lift suddenly stopped and two Heartless appeared. They looked a bit like two floating wizards in purple clothes with wands. After taking a while to beat the two, a crystal switch appeared in the middle of the lift, and they were able to make the lift start moving again. They were let off on a balcony and the lift started moving back to where it came from. Nowhere else to go, they went down the stairs and through a passage. Once again, they found themselves in the room full of lifts and switches. There weren't any other passages for them to take though.

"Looks like we're gonna have to start using these lifts," said Aladdin.

"I hope we don't get lost," said Goofy. They activated a lift and it took them up a level to a way out. They found themselves on yet another balcony and took another lift up to another balcony. They took care of the Heartless that appeared, went through a door to the lift room, took care of more Heartless, and left through another opening. This area seemed connected to the last balcony. They fought some more Heartless. They had nowhere else to go, so they activated a nearby crystal switch. Instead of calling a lift, it caused a column type structure to lower.

"That's it? That's all it does?" asked Aladdin. "Well, now what?"

"They look sort of like steps," said Goofy. Everyone cocked their heads.

"I can see it."

"There was another switch on the other side," noted Donald. After a bit of running back and forth, they were able to get up to the next level. They walked through a passage in the lift room in hopes it would take them somewhere important.

Back in the area with the Princesses, Riku walked up to Maleficient, who was standing in front of the giant Heartless symbol. "So, I see the path has emerged at last." Riku's voice was odd, like two people were talking at once or there was an echo to his voice. Maleficent nodded, seemingly unbothered by Riku's odd tone.

"Yes, the Keyhole to the Darkness."

"Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world." Maleficent smirked.

"What do I care? The darkness holds no power over me. Rather, I will use its power to rule all words." Riku rolled his eyes, seemingly amused.

"Such confidence." He held out his hand and a Keyblade appeared in it in a swirl of darkness. It looked very different from Sora's Keyblade. There was no chain or charm, the guards were red, the handle was black, and the shaft was black with the teeth having an odd shape. Maleficent looked at it in surprise and a bit of admiration. Then she suddenly frowned, jerked up, and looked at the portal.

"Impossible! The princesses of heart are all here!" She turned to glare at the comatose body of Kairi lying a few feet behind the two. "It must be her." They walked over to Kairi.

"Without her heart, she will never be able to release her power." They looked up as they heard a loud slamming noise.

"The king's fools are here," said Maleficent, her voice full of contempt. "I'll deal with them myself. You stay here and guard the princesses." She calmly walked down the stairs. When she was out of sight, Riku smirked, glowing slightly blue.

At that moment, the boys had reached what looked to be a dark, round room with the exception of a sort of hall that led to the lift room. It seemed to be another dead end. Everyone sighed. This castle was almost as bad as Monstro. As soon as they thought that (Except for Beast of course), Maleficent suddenly appeared in front of them, causing all of them to get in fighting positions…except for Sora. He still wasn't moving. Maleficent smirked. "I'm afraid you're too late. Any moment now, the final Keyhole will be unsealed." Donald and Goofy instantly tensed up. Aladdin just frowned. He had no idea how that was any different from a normal keyhole. It meant nothing to Beast so he just continued growling. The only reason he wasn't attacking was because Goofy and Aladdin were right in front of him. Maleficent spread her arms out "This world will be plunged into darkness. It is unstoppable." Here Maleficent's eyes went to Sora and smirked. "After all, you've incapacitated the Keyblade master, the only one who had any chance of stopping it." Yeah, Donald and Goofy still felt bad about that.

"We'll stop it!" said Aladdin.

"Yeah!" agreed Donald. "We've come this far! We're not gonna lose now!" Maleficent snorted.

"You poor simple fools. You think you can defeat me?" She lifted her arms up and the ground below her started to glow and rise. "Me, the mistress of all evil?" The rock started glowing and levitating towards the small group.

"How exactly do we deal with her?" asked Aladdin.

"We'll have to be careful," said Donald. He was casting Aero on everyone. "She's a very powerful sorceress. Her magic could easily kill us if we're not careful." They dodged some lightning bolts that suddenly rained down from the ceiling.

"Hey! I got an idea!" Aladdin quickly turned toward Beast. "Throw me onto the rock!" Beast quickly grabbed Aladdin and threw him onto the rock. Maleficent ignited her staff and made a sweeping motion with it. It did hit Aladdin's arms, but there wasn't enough force behind it to knock him away, and he managed to swipe at her with one of Sora's daggers. It did cut her robe, but it didn't seem to get through to her skin. Maleficent retaliated by hitting him with a large fireball that did knock him off.

"Why did you do that? !" shouted Donald. Aladdin was looking over himself. The two attacks hadn't done that much damage actually.

"I'm supposed to have a high magic resistance, aren't I?" Maleficent narrowed her eyes and raised her staff. Several Darkballs appeared.

"Now know the meaning of fear!" The Darkballs attacked all of them, but they seemed to be focusing on Beast. And they were attacking him from behind. Beast quickly spun and slashed any that came near him.

"They're trying to get Sora!" said Goofy.

"They won't touch him!" shouted Beast. Maleficent slammed her staff into the rock.

"Meteors of heaven, release thy fury!" Then a sort of portal appeared and large meteors started shooting out of it. Dodging was a bit of a problem since there were so many of them and they were so close together. Donald had to use a Cura to keep everyone from fainting…except for Aladdin. He was hurt, but it wasn't as bad as the others. Maleficent narrowed her eyes at him again.

Now would be a good time to mention that people with unusually high magic resistance, like Aladdin, are the natural enemies of people who rely very heavily on magic, like Malificent.

In other words, Aladdin is now a target as well. The Heartless started going for him and Sora.

"Why are they going for me? !"

"I guess she just doesn't like you." This got Goofy some odd looks. He was whacking at Maleficent's rock. He'd been doing that for a couple of minutes now. Then the rock stopped glowing and fell to the ground, nearly hitting Goofy. Beast immediately jumped on it to try and attack her.

"Come out!" Some Defenders instantly appeared around her, blocking Beast and knocking him away. Aladdin and Goofy took advantage of this to jump on the rock and attack Maleficent. Donald was helping Beast. Goofy and Aladdin did manage to get a couple of hits, but then Maleficent turned into a small ball of green light with a flare of green fire. Both groaned.

"It's like the Gargoyles all over again." Then the stone rotated fast enough to throw them off. Since they couldn't attack Maleficent again until her body reappeared, they went to help Donald and Beast with the Heartless. The rock moved nearby. As soon as the Heartless were defeated, Maleficent reappeared, and her rock started glowing and floating again.

"Attack the rock!" said Donald.

"You think I will allow that?" A swirling cloud appeared above her and the rock. Aladdin tried to get near and lightning started coming down from it. He did manage to get by though. Maleficent scowled and summoned more Darkballs.

"You take care of the rock! We'll take care of the Heartless!" shouted Donald.

"Got it!" The daggers didn't do much, but they did do some damage. Maleficent summoned more Heartless. Donald was curing everyone. Goofy was keeping Heartless from attacking Sora. None of them could get near the rock since lightning was still coming down around the rock. This went on for another few minutes (Along with another Meteor spell and lightning bolts), until the rock suddenly fell and nearly crushed Aladdin. Maleficent turned to give the Arabian a glare. This was a bad idea because it exposed her back to Beast. Beast is incredibly strong with sharp claws and teeth. He jumped her and bit into her neck. Maleficent made an odd choking sound before blasting away Beast with a large fire blast and disappearing into a purple and black portal. It didn't close after her. She must've been too weak to close it properly.

"Is she dead?" asked Aladdin.

"That portal's using her power," said Donald. "If she died, it would lose its power source and collapse." Beast growled. There was black blood all over his face and claws and it made him look rather scary.

"Then I'll finish her off!" He was probably capable of it considering that Maleficent was now in very bad shape.

"Should we go?" asked Goofy.

"Hold on." Donald cast several Curas and chugged down some Ethers. "Okay, let's go." They dashed toward and through the portal…just as Sora suddenly fell off of Beast. Unfortunately, the portal closed as soon as they went through it.

"_Great…I got left behind."_

"_I'm sure it was an accident."_

"_How do you know? They've already abandoned him once. Who's to say they won't do so again?"_

"_That was a mistake and they realized it! And they felt horrible about it!"_

"_Will you two stop arguing? !"_ Honestly, Sora was starting to wonder if he was becoming schizophrenic. It wouldn't be surprising with his history.

"_Hm…"_ Uh oh, that couldn't be good. _"That enemy is stronger than they think. They will be weakened when they return, and they will not be expecting an attack. It would be a good time to take them out."_

"_No! You can't! They're your friends!"_

"_You don't need friends. They'll leave you eventually one way or another. You can only depend on yourself."_

"_That's not true! Don't listen to him Sora!"_

"_You are a mere child. You dare to question me?"_

"_Both of you shut up! I can't even hear myself think!" Then Sora opened his eyes. He blinked several times. He had no idea where he was. It certainly wasn't a castle. In fact, it didn't look like something that could be real. To his left was sand, some houses and stone-paved paths, some palm trees, and in the distance he could see the ocean. To his right, was what looked like a metal city of some kind. There were scores of blood stains on the buildings and ground, and Sora could actually see a couple of corpses. What made him convinced that it wasn't real was that while it was nice and sunny on the beach side, it was very dark on the city side. If that wasn't enough, the two were literally separated by a line. Not even a grain of sand or a bit of blood crossed the line. One fresh looking puddle that was still running was actually stopping at the line. Sora looked down. One foot was on either side of the line._

"_What is going on?"_

"_I felt like you needed help." Sora's eyes widened. Standing in front of him was Kimihiro…in his 'housewife' clothes for some reason._

"_Kimihiro!" Sora couldn't help it. He ran forward and hugged the older Tsviet. Kimihiro smiled and returned the hug._

"_Rough time?"_

"_How did you get here?"_

"_I'm not really here." Sora pulled back and gave him a confused look._

"_It's an astral projection, like how we first met, remember?"_

"_Why didn't you do that before? I could've used the help!"_

"_There are reasons for that. The most practical one is that it is very difficult to send an astral projection across worlds. I can easily astral project for hours if it's in the same world I'm in, but in a different world, I can only do it for a short time."_

"_Oh, so you're leaving?" Sora was a bit saddened by this._

"_Yeah, but even if that wasn't the case, I'd have to find a way to tell when you needed me. The only reason I was able to tell you really needed some help was because your soul was in such turmoil that it was crying out in pain, and I only heard that because we both have Jenova cells in our bodies."_

"_My soul is in turmoil?"_

"_Yeah, it's not that surprising during this part of your life, but having those two in your head arguing made it worse." Kimihiro frowned. "How did you get Kairi in your head anyway? Your father isn't a surprise since you have his cells in your body, but Kairi shouldn't be in here."_

"_So that's really Kairi I'm hearing?"_

"_Yeah. It looks like part of her is in your body so it might be bad enough that you see her, sort of like a hallucination." Sora sweatdropped. That explained that. "Anyway, I'm blocking those two, but it's really difficult, so we better make this quick." Sora nodded._

"_Okay, there are these two guys-"_

"_Sora, you need to decide on your own."_

"_But you said you were here to help me!"_

"_But I won't always be here. We both know that." Sora looked down._

"_Why are you here?"_

"_You're confused. Your soul is in turmoil. Do you know why?"_

"_Because no one ever does what they're supposed to?" Kimihiro chuckled._

"_That's just a fact of life. We all have to get used to it. After all, we don't know what anyone is supposed to do. We just assume we do." He got serious. "The reason you are in turmoil is because you're growing up." Sora gave Kimihiro an odd look._

"_Kimihiro…I'm a Tsviet who has been raised by assassins. I grew up when I was 6."_

"_No, you became mature when you were 6. There's a difference. When you mature, you become wise to the world and lose the innocence of childhood. Growing up is when you break free from the constraints of your parents and become your own person. Sora, you have always been raised by others. First your birth parents, then your father, and then the Tsviets. You have never been on your own. Most of your views and values were simply picked up and copied from these people that raised you. Now that you've been on your own, more or less, your own views and values have started to develop and take shape. This is the point of your life when you become who you will likely be for the rest of your life. That is why I have not tried this before. Because I did not want to affect the values that are finally developing." Sora stared at Kimihiro trying to process what Kimihiro was saying._

"_So, you're not gonna help me decide what to do because you want me to grow up and decide on my own?"_

"_More or less. It is a lot to take in at once." Sora frowned._

"_But I don't know what to do."_

"_I'm guessing that what you think you should do is conflicting with what you want to do." Kimihiro spread his arms out. "That's why you're mind is split in two like this. One side is what you want, the other is what you're used to." Kimihiro smiled. "I'm sure you know which is which." Sora looked between the two._

"_Am I supposed to choose one?"_

"_Yes, and whichever one you choose, you will always be precious to me, and I will always support you in what you do." Sora seemed to be thinking. "I won't tell you what to choose…but I will give you a bit of advice. There are things we are good at, and things that we love. It is a lucky person who is able to find a path with both of them. Would you rather have something that you know would make you happy but no security, or something that you know will give you security even if you will be unhappy? Some people prefer the first. Some people prefer the second. Which one do you prefer?" Sora frowned in thought for a second. He looked over at the beach. He looked over at the city. He closed his eyes and looked down in thought. After what seemed like several minutes, he turned to the side and walked off. Kimihiro smiled. "So that's your choice…I'm glad. Good luck, Sora." Kimihiro turned his head towards the city half. There was a man with long silver hair and black clothing standing in it._

"_You dare interfere?"_

"_So you're General Sephiroth?" Kimihiro hmm'ed in thought. "Can't say I can see you as a father."_

"_What I do is none of your business."_

"_It is when it concerns that boy. He is precious to me. I will not allow you to turn him into a puppet for your own needs."_

"_If that's the case, then I will simply have to remove you from his life so that you can no longer influence him." Kimihiro chuckled._

"_You'll have to beat your mother then." Kimihiro bowed. "If that will be all, I'll be leaving General." Then Kimihiro disappeared. The other man snorted._

"_He will come to me. It is only a matter of time."_

"Sora!" The portal closed behind them before they could try to reach back in and grab the unconscious Tsviet. Now they were alone with an injured Maleficent.

"Do you need some help?" Scratch that. They all quickly turned around and blinked. It was Riku, but it didn't sound like Riku. And his weapon was different. He turned to look at the group and looked a bit nonplussed. "You lost him."

"Please tell me that's not a Keyblade," said Aladdin. Riku grinned and held it up so they could get a better look at it.

"Yes, a Keyblade. But unlike Sora's, this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts." He lowered it with a smirk. "Allow me to demonstrate…Behold!" Then he spun and jammed it into Maleficent's chest. She let out a short gasp as dark energy started pouring from where it was entering her chest. "Now, open your heart, surrender it to the darkness! Become darkness itself!" That seemed to be enough for Riku because he pulled the Keyblade out and disappeared into a portal of some kind. Maleficent seemed unharmed oddly enough, although she was glowing green and seemed slightly shocked.

"This is it!" She held up her hands and grinned. "This power!" She started laughing. "Darkness!" At this point, Beast leapt for her. He was knocked back by a blast of green fire. "The true darkness!" And then she erupted into a blast of green fire and darkness. In the pillar, Maleficent's form grew and twisted until she was a giant black dragon with horns, spines, and wings.

"She shouldn't be able to do that!" shouted Donald.

"How'd they do that? !"

"This is gonna be hard…"

Beast just leapt at Maleficent with a roar. She spun around and knocked him into a wall with her tail.

"Do either of you guys have experience with dragons?" asked Aladdin.

"No." This was not good. They were gonna have to wing it now. Aladdin tried to run up Maleficent's back, but had to jump off when she tried to bite him. Donald cast a Blizzara spell on her. This made her angry as far as they could tell. Beast recovered from getting flung into the wall and ran on all fours over to one of Maleficent's legs, which he promptly latched onto used his fangs and claws. This did seem to hurt Maleficent as she let out a loud roar and started trying to shake him off. Aladdin took advantage of this to run up her tail and onto her back again. This time he reached the neck, grabbed onto it with one arm, and buried one of Sora's daggers into Malelficent's right eye. Maleficent roared in pain and whipped her head flinging Aladdin off and into a wall. Donald sighed. It looked like that was going to be happening a lot here. He cast a quick Cure on Aladdin. Maleficent was busy clawing at her eye with the foreleg that Beast wasn't hanging on to. At least she was fairly distracted for the moment. "Attack!" So they did. Goofy threw his shield. Donald used Blizzaras. Aladdin ran toward Maleficent to try and run up her tail again. This time Maleficent whipped her head around and let out a breath of fire on him before he could reach her. Aladdin quickly rolled on the ground to put out the fire. Fortunately, when he sat up, he was fine. His skin was pink like sunburn, his hair was singed, and his hat was missing, but he wasn't badly burned. He patted himself over real quick. "I guess it's a magic fire." That was a relief for him.

"Hey! I think I can do something about that!" This battle is going to take a while, so let's cut back to Sora for the moment.

He was lying on the ground, but his eyelids were fluttering a bit. He groaned and sat up holding his head. He looked around in confusion for a bit before noticing a passageway and walking towards it. After walking for a few minutes, Sora found himself surrounded by women encased in crystal on either side. _"Jasmine and Alice…"_ Sora took a look at the other four women. _"I don't know the others."_ Sora frowned and looked over the crystals. He probably couldn't break them without hurting the women. Sora started walking forward. When he walked up the stairs, he saw Riku in his new outfit staring at a heart-shaped thing filled with a substance that was constantly shifting and changing colors and Kairi lying on the ground. Sora went over to Kairi, kneeled down, and carefully cradled her in his arms.

"The darkness in your heart has gotten weaker." Sora looked up towards Riku's back. He sounded different. "There was a powerful darkness in your heart. It is what gave you power." Riku turned around. Sora noticed that there seemed to be another figure superimposed on Riku's. "Now though, it's been overcome by the light and can barely be felt. Pathetic."

"You're Riku…and not Riku?" It was a bit confusing to Sora. Sora looked down at Kairi. "It's not so bad. My head doesn't hurt, and I can think a lot more clearly now. My heart hurts though. Is it Kairi?"

"That is correct. When she lost her heart, she transferred it into your body." He summoned the Keyblade that he used on Maleficent. "However, as long as the last princess of heart sleeps, the Keyhole will not be complete. To do so, the princess's heart must be released from your body."

Sora put his hand to his chest. _"You were with me all along…"_ "What about Riku?"

"What do you care? He betrayed you. You have already accepted that you need to eliminate him for your own sake."

"I think…I finally know what I want, and that includes having Riku as a friend." Riku snorted and raised a hand. Sora's heart erupted into pain. He choked and grabbed at his chest.

"You still understand nothing." Sora laughed.

"Yeah? Well…What do you know?" Riku smirked.

"I know all that there is to know." The image over Riku was becoming clearer. It appeared to be a man with dark skin and gray hair. He didn't seem that old…

"Just who are you anyway?"

"It is I, Ansem, the seeker of darkness!" Sora blinked. Wasn't that the guy who was supposed to be studying the Heartless? He was a bad guy? Riku, no, Ansem came closer. "I shall release you now, princess. Complete the Keyhole with your power. Lead me into everlasting darkness!" Ansem grinned and raised the Keyblade and brought it forward to stab into Sora's chest.

"_Sora!"_

At the last moment, Sora raised his arms and summoned his Keyblade to block Ansem's, making the other male's grin fall. Sora looked up defiantly and used his Keyblade to knock Ansem back. "Forget it!" He jerked a thumb at his chest. "I'm Sora the Maelstrom of the Tsviets! I'm not letting anyone hurt any of my friends, especially not a pedophile possessing Riku!" Ansem's eyebrow twitched.

"Then you will have to cease to exist." The two dashed forward, and their Keyblades clashed.

Back with the other group, they were panting on the ground for the most part. Beast was just kneeling. The dragon was gone. All that was left was her cloak on the ground. Aladdin winced and sat up. Due to his magic resistance, he'd ended up playing the part of a human shield. Most of his clothes had been destroyed due to this. "Ow…Can I have a potion or something?" Donald tossed him a hi-potion. "Thanks." Donald sighed, sat up, and drank an ether. Then he started using Curas on everyone.

"What a pain…" Goofy quickly got to his feet. A portal had opened when they'd beaten Maleficent, but they'd been a little too out of it to care.

"We better go make sure that Sora's okay." They walked through the portal and realized something worrisome.

"Where's Sora? !"

Back with Sora and Ansem, Ansem's head suddenly jerked up. Sora tried to take advantage of this by swinging his Keyblade at Ansem's head. He managed to block. "The witch was defeated." Sora grinned.

"Good for them." Ansem scoffed.

"A meaningless victory. The Heartless have been using her from the very beginning. She was as much a puppet as this boy."

"Don't you talk about Riku like that!" Sora took several swings, driving Ansem back a few feet as he blocked.

"You can't save him. He can no longer hear you."

"We'll see about that!"

Meanwhile, the other group has run into the hall, looking around frantically. They froze when they saw the frozen girls. Aladdin went over to Jasmine while Beast went over to a girl in a yellow evening gown. Aladdin frowned as he touched the crystal covering his princess.

"What is this stuff?"

"I dunno…" Donald came over and looked her over. "It looks like it keeps 'em subdued somehow. Wait a minute." Donald quickly ran around to look at all the girls. "Their hearts are gone!"

"Are you serious? !" Aladdin quickly looked at Jasmine. "Does that mean they're gonna turn into Heartless?"

"I bet they're like Kairi," said Goofy. "Her heart is gone too, right?"

"I hope so…"

"Someone is fighting," said Beast. Sure enough, when the others strained a bit, they could hear some clanging sounds. They headed up the stairs and saw Sora and Ansem fighting.

"Sora!" Donald ran forward, and promptly hit a barrier.

"I don't he's gonna let us help," said Aladdin. He gave Riku a weird look. "But, how's that guy standing? I got him pretty good…"

"It's someone else," said Beast.

"What do you mean?"

"Watch. He is moving around differently than he was before." Aladdin took a closer look. He couldn't see much of a difference. Then again, he'd only met Riku a few times and didn't pay attention to how he moved.

Ansem suddenly made a swing that created a dark shockwave. It was aimed at Kairi. Sora quickly put himself between the two to block it. He quickly fired off a Fira spell. Ansem easily dodged it, but Sora had predicted that and leapt forward with a swing at Ansem's abdomen. He backflipped to avoid it, but did get a thin cut across his chest. Ansem countered with a slash that Sora blocked and also countered. For a moment they went into a swordfight that went too fast for anyone who is normal to keep up with them, both landed some hits when the other let their guard down.

"Enough!" Ansem started glowing. Then he started flying around, using dark portals to change directions. He also became fast enough that even Sora started having trouble defending himself.

"_Shit! My body's still in bad shape! I won't be able to last much longer!"_ Sora rolled away from another strike. _"And I have to ignore any openings that could be fatal! Is it this hard to save someone? !"_ Sora blocked one of the strikes, but it still cut into his arm. _"How am I supposed to save him? ! I don't know how to deal with possession or mind control! All I know is that you can kick the person doing the controlling out if you're strong enough!"_ Sora dropped down to the ground to avoid a particularly well aimed charge. _"Hey! People in my head! Some input would be appreciated right now!"_ His Keyblade suddenly started glowing very brightly. Hoping that it would do something, he blocked another charge with the hopefully empowered Keyblade. The block worked. The Keyblade seemingly exploded. Blade of light went everywhere. Fortunately, it seemed that they didn't hurt most of the things around. Sora and Kairi weren't hurt by them at all. In fact, they only one hurt was Ansem. There were a bunch of obviously deep cuts that possibly went right through him. Sora and Ansem were both wide-eyed.

"_That's not what I was trying to do!"_ Ansem dropped his Keyblade and stumbled backwards a few steps before disappearing in a quick swirl of darkness.

"Did I just kill him? !" Poor Sora. The one time he tries not to kill someone, and he seemingly kills the guy. His three newer friends walked over to him. Beast went back down the stairs. There was an awkward silence. No one was really sure what to do or say.

"Uh, sorry about your friends…" said Aladdin. There was a shorter silence.

"Sorry for going with Riku," said Donald. Sora just clenched his hands and subconsciously dismissed the Keyblade. Seems he finally figured out how to do that.

"_I couldn't do anything! I tried to save him, and I ended up killing him! Is that all I know how to do? ! Is that all I'm capable of doing? !"_ His eyes went to Kairi. _"Does that mean I'll end up killing her too? !"_ Sora seemed to be in a bit of shock to his friends so they decided to try and figure out what was going on.

"Ya know…I think that thing there is the Keyhole," said Goofy, pointing at the emblem shaped vortex.

"You think we can get Sora to lock it?" asked Aladdin. They all looked at Sora. He was still staring at the spot Riku had been at.

"I don't think so," said Donald. He crossed his arms and huffed. "I don't get it though. He killed an entire pirate crew and got covered in blood, and he didn't bat an eyelash, but he accidentally kills a bad guy, and he's completely out of it."

"I bet it's 'cause he and Riku were good friends," said Goofy. "Even though they were fighting, Sora didn't wanna hurt him."

"That doesn't sound like him," said Aladdin. Then he noticed the evil looking Keyblade on the ground and walked over to it. "Isn't this the Keyblade Riku used to unlock Maleficent's heart?"

"Yeah, weird that it didn't fade with him," mused Donald. Aladdin knelt down, reaching for it. "Don't touch it! You can't use Keyblades, so touching it might cause it to release your heart or something!" Aladdin shot up.

"Don't want that…" Aladdin turned towards the two anthros so he missed Sora's gaze shifting towards Ansem's Keyblade. "Any idea how to wake any of the girls up?"

"Nope," said Donald.

"We should get their hearts back!" said Goofy.

"Of course, but we have no idea how to do that!" Aladdin heard a scraping sound and blinked. He turned back around, and his eyes widened.

"Sora! What're you doing? !" The anthros turned and their eyes widened as well. What could cause these reactions? Sora had picked Ansem's Keyblade and had the point right over his heart. He turned to look at the other boys, smiled, and then thrust the Keyblade into his chest.

-End Chapter-

I just wanted to make a cliffhanger for once. Besides, what happens in Traverse Town won't take up much space…hopefully. The second trip to Hollow Bastion shouldn't be too long either. Besides, this chapter was getting long!

This was hard to write! I needed to keep Riku alive, but that was going to be difficult with Sora's personality. I ended up having to use Kimihiro as a sort of dues ex machina. I hope it worked out.

What happened in that first fight with Riku? Well, if you recognize the Keyblade Sora used, it should be fairly obvious.

Since it's a bit difficult to tell, when Sora permanently regained the Keyblade, he realized that he is actually hearing Kairi and not just imagining her voice.

Since Aladdin's clothes were destroyed, he needs a new outfit. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm gonna try and come up with something, but I don't have a very good fashion sense.

**Omake: It's Some Sorta Masochist…**

Sora, Aladdin, and Beast were exploring the castle catacombs. That's what Sora was referring to the corridors in his head anyway. There were a lot of Heartless popping up, much to everyone's annoyance. Then there was a particularly big poof that made them all get in a fighting position. It was a giant mushroom with a light blue robe and a pink hat. It gave a little wave to them. Beast leapt at it with a roar and started beating it up.

"Uh, should we tell him that those are usually harmless?" asked Aladdin.

"Well, we don't know for sure. We've never seen this type before and the Black Fungus type is offensive."

"Is it just me, or do those squeaks it's making sound kinda weird?" Sora frowned and activated his Scan.

"_Pink Agaricus. Wants you to beat it up."_ Aladdin stared in shock as Sora facevaulted.

"Are you okay?"

"How do you end up with a masochist Heartless? !" That explained it. Aladdin turned slightly green and looked over at the one-sided fight where the Heartless was squeaking…happily?

"Should we tell him?"

"Ignorance is bliss." So they just watched him beat the Heartless to a pulp. Then it suddenly left. It left something behind. Aladdin walked over and picked it up.

"It's some sort of weird hat…" It looked like some sort of cap that was pink and poofy with the curly symbols that had been on the Agaricus' hat. "Should we keep this?"

"I don't care." Aladdin slipped it into his sash. Why he wants that I don't know. They continued on their way to try and make some progress while Sora and Aladdin tried to forget about the masochist mushroom.


	19. Chapter 19

Right, here's Chapter 19.

I've started a new story called Betrayal. I'm mostly writing the chapters when I have writer's block or don't feel like thinking. This is still my main story. Still, the reviews I've gotten for it are positive for the most part, so you guys might like to read it.

I still don't own anything in this story, except for some of the plot.

-Starting up-

As soon as Sora used Ansem's Keyblade to stab himself in the chest, he and the Keyblade started glowing. The Keyblade dissolved into six glowing hearts that returned to the unconscious princesses. A second later, another glowing heart came out of Sora and went into Kairi's chest. Her eyelids fluttered for a second before opening. As the Keyhole flashed white, Sora smiled. Then his face went blank and he fell backwards as the glow around him started to intensify.

"Sora!" Aladdin ran towards him.

"Sora!" Donald ran towards Sora too, with Goofy right behind him.

Kairi pushed herself to her feet. "Sora!" She ran towards Sora and got near enough to catch him, but he disappeared completely as soon as he hit her arms, leaving only the lights for a few seconds.

Sora opened his eyes for a second. It was completely dark, and he could feel himself falling. _"I'm falling…into darkness?"_ An image of Kairi's face filled his mind. He smiled. _"I don't mind. As long as Kairi is okay."_ And he continued to fall, no longer minding such a fate.

Sora's friends stared at where he had just been in shock and horror.

"Is he…gone?" asked Goofy.

"I don't know," said Aladdin. "I mean…he seemed invincible, but…"

"You can't come back once you lose your heart," finished Donald, rather sadly.

"Is Sora really-" Kairi shook off her head, as if to fling the idea from her mind. She looked up with a stubbornly set expression. "No! It can't be! I won't let him go!"

"But what can we do?" asked Aladdin. That was the question. No one could answer it.

A few feet away, a dark portal suddenly formed and a man walked out of it. He had very tanned skin, long gray hair, glowing yellow eyes, and a very complicated outfit that had the Heartless emblem sort of acting as a clasp. His outfit seemed to be an open black and white jacket with shoulder armor, black pants, white gloves, black boots, some sort of white shirt thing, and the Heartless clasp. If you want to know about the buckles and stuff, look up a picture. That's not really something you can describe just with words. The man smirked at the group, more specifically at Kairi. The guys got into defensive positions with their weapons drawn. "So, you have awakened at last, Princess." He glanced over at the Keyhole. "The Keyhole is now complete." He went back to looking at the group with a predatory look on his face. "You have served your purpose, but now, it's over." The guys tensed. Who was this guy?

"Don't make another move!" shouted Donald.

"Do you think we can take him?" asked Goofy.

"Of course!" shouted Aladdin. "We can't let Sora down, can we?"

The man just smirked and made a step forward. Then he did an odd full body twitch. He seemed to be trying to move, but couldn't seem to do more than twitch when he tried to move. "Im-Impossible…" And talk.

"No! You won't use me for this!" A transparent image of a very familiar boy appeared in front of the man.

Kairi's eyes widened. "Riku!" Well, that meant the man was probably Ansem. Why he looked different now was anyone's guess. Riku looked like he was trying to keep Ansem from moving forward and had a pained look on his face.

"You've got to run! The Heartless are coming!" As soon as he said this, a bunch of Shadows started popping up all over the place. Ansem still wasn't moving, but it looked like Riku was weakening quickly. Kairi looked uncertain for a moment, but nodded. There was no way, the guys could fight Ansem while protecting her. They made a run for it.

"But what about the Keyhole!" asked Goofy.

"Let's just get out of here!" shouted Donald.

Aladdin gave Beast a quick look. "Beast! You better run too!"

Ansem made an annoyed sound as Riku collapsed and started disappearing. "Fool. What makes you think you can stop me?" Ansem walked into the Keyhole while dismissing the Shadows. He didn't notice that one Shadow stayed behind. It stared at the Keyhole for a moment. Once it was sure Ansem wasn't coming back, it jumped off the platform and ran towards the princesses. Beast was still there. Seems he hadn't taken Aladdin's advice. The princesses still seemed to be unconscious. When Beast saw the Shadow, he started growling. The Shadow quickly ran through the hall to get away from the large angry creature. It didn't want to get ripped apart.

The Shadow made an odd sighing noise when it reached the chapel. It looked around a bit. There was only one way out, so that's where it went. It tried to use one of the lifts, but it wouldn't activate for the little Heartless. It sighed again and looked over the edge of the platform. After a moment of deliberation, it jumped off. Thankfully, it landed on another platform. After repeating this a couple of times, it got on some steps that would let it get back into the castle. It quickly ran in and found itself looking over the group it had been looking for. It seemed they'd stopped to let Kairi get her breath. She wasn't used to running for her life. She also seemed to be crying a bit.

"I-I can't leave them here!"

"We can't stay here!" said Donald.

That was when Aladdin noticed the Shadow watching them. "Guys! We got another Heartless!" Since it had been spotted, it jumped down and tried to get a bit closer.

"I'll take care of it!" Donald quickly ran over and bopped it over the head with his staff. It quickly covered its head with its claws. It didn't really do anything else, which was odd for a Heartless. It actually made the blows less effective. It looked over at Kairi. She was staring at it, confused. It seemed really familiar to her.

"Sora?" The Shadow perked up. "Is that you?" It ran over to her, making everyone tense, but it didn't try to attack her, it just tried to stand up a bit straighter. Then a bunch of other Shadows appeared around them.

"Uh oh."

They Heartless started closing in, but they seemed especially interested in Kairi and the Shadow. Kairi stood in front of the Shadow protectively. "This time, I'll protect you." Of course, Kairi had no fighting capabilities. The Heartless kept closing in. Kairi turned and grabbed the friendly Heartless as the others jumped at them. "Sora!" Then they were enveloped in darkness. The boys looked over.

"Kairi!" Then there was a light that destroyed the Heartless. Kairi frowned. It didn't feel like she was holding a Heartless anymore.

"Kairi…" Kairi's eyes opened in shock. She looked up and saw Sora smiling at her. "Thank you."

Kairi's eyes started watering. "Sora…"

"Sora!" And then even more Heartless appeared. Sora quickly pushed Kairi behind him and summoned the Keyblade. He figured he could get Kairi out of there without a problem, but he didn't want to leave any of the others either. Fortunately, Beast made a reappearance. He jumped down with a roar and slashed the nearest Shadow, getting the attention of the other Heartless.

"Go now!"

Sora frowned. "Come with us!"

Beast shook his head. "I told you before, I'm not leaving without Belle! Now go! The Heartless are coming!"

Sora frowned. Beast was strong. He could take care of himself. Sora nodded. "Let's get out of here!" So the group ran. They ran all the way to where the nearest green circle was, hitting away any Heartless that got too close to them. They didn't stop until they got on the gummi ship and had started it up. Thanks to the warp drive, they were in front of Traverse Town in a moment.

"That…was nuts," said Aladdin.

"No, kidding." Donald turned towards Sora. "How'd you change back?"

"Kairi."

"Huh?"

Sora turned to Kairi. "When I was falling, and had accepted I was going to turn into a monster, I heard Kairi's voice. I wanted to see her again, so I reached out for it as much as I could." Sora grinned at the blushing Kairi. "You brought me back. If it wasn't for you, I think I would've just been another Heartless."

"I…I'm glad I was able to help!" There was some snickering from Donald and Goofy. Kairi blushed some more.

"That reminds me…" Sora hit the two anthros in the head hard enough to send them onto the floor. "That's for going off with Riku!" Sora crossed his arms with a smirk. "I'm glad you changed your minds though. I've become fond of you guys."

"How hard did you hit them?" asked Aladdin staring at the two semi-conscious anthros.

"Not too hard. What happened to your clothes?"

"Magic fire." It's actually why Aladdin didn't stay to keep an eye on Jasmine. He would have been really embarrassed if she saw him wearing pretty much nothing but torn up shorts. "By the way…" He handed Sora an odd looking red stone that looked a bit like a dragon head and had an inner glow. "I found that after Maleficent disappeared. I figure it's some kind of summon gem. And…" Aladdin gave Sora back his daggers. "I kind of need a new sword too…"

Sora winced. That was gonna be a bit expensive. "Good thing we have plenty of munny…"

As soon as the anthros were woken up, they beamed down into the main square. Aerith was there. "Oh my! What happened to you Aladdin? !"

Aladdin blushed a bit. "Magic fire…"

Aerith's eyes then went to Kairi. "Oh, are you Kairi?" Kairi nodded. Aerith gave her a smile. "It's nice to meet you. I'm glad Sora was able to find one of his friends." Kairi smiled back.

"It's nice to meet you too."

"Aerith, we need to talk about what happened at Hollow Bastion," said Sora. "Do you know where we can find the others?"

Aerith chuckled. "First, I think we need to find Aladdin some new clothes. I don't think he wants to walk around like that."

Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, that would be really nice."

"Yuffie and I have some outfits. I'm sure we can find something that fits." They made a quick trip to the hotel, where Yuffie was messing with some shiny objects.

"Whoa! What happened to Aladdin? !"

"Magic fire," explained Aerith. "You collect the clothing that shows up. Do you have anything that might fit him?"

Yuffie took a moment to give Aladdin a good look over. "I think so. Give me a moment to grab some stuff."

A few moments later, Aladdin was wearing a white shirt, a violet vest, black fingerless gloves, denim pants, a belt with an attached pack, and brown boots. Aladdin looked his new outfit over. "You guys have the weirdest clothing…"

"We better get to Leon now," said Sora. Aerith had gone to tell Leon that Sora was back while Yuffie was updating Aladdin's wardrobe. The group traveled to the familiar house.

Leon gave Kairi and Aladdin an appraising look. Then he turned to Sora. "Tell me what happened." Sora did tell what he could, but Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin had to provide information for when Sora had been unconscious and hadn't been able to see anything. When they finished, Aerith and Yuffie looked shocked, Cid was cursing under his breath, and Leon was rubbing the bridge of his nose. "We'll worry about Ansem later. For now, we need to focus on the Keyhole and the darkness flowing out of it."

"It must be why there are more and more Heartless everywhere," said Aerith. "The only way we could stop them would be to seal the Keyhole…"

"Maybe…" said Leon. He looked worried. That wasn't good. "But no one knows what will happen once it's sealed."

"Well, I'm not just gonna sit around here," said Sora. "I gotta another friend there that I need to save."

Kairi perked up. "Does that mean you're not angry at Riku anymore?"

"I don't want to kill him anymore, but I'm still upset at him! He should have known better than to have listened to a strange woman like Maleficent." Sora muttered some other things about Riku's unfortunate lapse of judgment.

Leon glanced at Aladdin. "What about you? I thought you wanted to beat Riku up for kidnapping your girlfriend."

Aladdin paled. "I'm good. I don't think Riku needs to be beaten up anymore."

Sora nodded. "Yeah, his body was pretty beat up. I should probably keep an elixir on hand in case we can get his body back and it's in bad shape."

"Well, if you want to save Riku, you will have to return to Hollow Bastion," said Leon. There was a short silence as everyone thought for a moment. "Riku's Keyblade must've been born of the captive princess's hearts-just like that Keyhole you saw." Here Leon looked at Kairi. "Of course, without Kairi's heart, it remained incomplete. Once that Keyblade was destroyed, their hearts should have been freed and returned to them." Leon nodded. "I don't know if anyone can save your friend, but if anyone can, it's you guys."

Sora smiled. "Thanks. But we need to get back to Hollow Bastion."

"There's a big problem with that," said Cid. "The Heartless there are multiplying by the minute. They'd eat your ship up."

"Isn't there a back way in?" asked Aladdin.

Cid nodded. "Yeah, sort of. Go around them instead of through them. You'll need a new navi-gummi for that though, and I don't know where you're gonna get something like that."

"The mural in the sewer," said Leon. Everyone looked at him. "There's a navi-gummi like that there."

"Something from when you came here?" asked Aerith. Leon nodded.

"Well, why not split up?" asked Sora. "Goofy can go to the synthesizing shop, Donald and Aladdin can go get supplies from the shop, and me and Kairi can go get the navi-gummi. Then we can meet back up here."

"But that's-" Donald was cut off by Aladdin.

"Okay, sounds good, see you there!" Then Aladdin grabbed Donald and dashed out of the house. Goofy smiled at Sora and Kairi before leaving. Yuffie waggled her eyebrows.

"Have fun you two!" The two kids blushed before walking out of the house.

"They seem really nice," said Kairi.

"Yeah, I guess since you were along the whole time, you know as much about them as I do." They walked along a little, with Sora taking care of any Heartless. Now that they were alone, things felt kind of awkward.

"So, that other voice was your father?" asked Kairi.

Sora winced. "Yeah, not exactly the nicest guy…" That was an understatement, and they both knew it.

"I always wondered why you were so happy to stay with those guys…" mused Kairi. "And I think I understand now. They never actually tried to kill you."

Sora nodded. "Yeah, they're not so bad. That's just how most of them were raised…like me."

"Sora…Why did you decide to save Riku all of a sudden? I was scared that you really were going to kill him."

"Kimihiro made me have an epiphany."

Kairi gave Sora a confused look. "When was Kimihiro there?"

"He wasn't. It was some sort of astral projection-telepathy thing."

"He can do that?"

"Yeah, he just hadn't bothered to in the years we lived on the islands."

Kairi looked relieved. Probably because that meant her mind hadn't been read without her permission. "Oh…what did you realize?"

"I don't want to be a psychotic assassin. I want to be a normal kid. I probably won't be very good at it, but I'd like to try it. And…I missed Riku. I wanted to be friends again."

Kairi smiled. "That's wonderful."

"Ya think? I'm worried I might go into a killing spree again."

Kairi shivered as she thought about some of the things she'd witnessed through Sora's eyes. "You don't actually enjoy that do you?"

"I'm not really sure…" He knew several of the other Tsviets did. He'd just followed their example. Kimihiro had not been exaggerating about how Sora had ended up with similar views to the Tsviets. "I guess I'll find out. I hope I don't enjoy it and it's just something I'm good at."

"That's kind of sad."

Sora rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "Yeah, I guess it is a depressing talent. It comes in handy with stuff like this though."

"Yeah, but how often does stuff like this happen?" More often than they thought, but they didn't know that.

That conversation stopped as Sora noticed the entrance to the sewers just ahead. "Here's the entrance to the sewers. If you wanna wait out here-"

"I'll go with you."

"Okay."

Kairi followed Sora into the sewers. "Wow, it's a lot cleaner than I expected."

"Yeah, I guess it's different than the ones we're used to."

They walked forward a bit until they saw the mural of a sun. Kairi gasped. "Wow, it's beautiful."

"Yeah, but where did Leon hide the gummi?" It didn't look like there was anything but rock on or in the wall. Sora quickly started feeling the wall. Maybe the gummi was hidden in some sort of secret compartment. Sora sighed. "Leon didn't tell me how to get it out of the wall…"

"We could go ask him."

"Yeah, but he's not the type to forget something like that. Shouldn't it be easy to find?" Sora paused for a moment. Then he jumped up and tapped the center of the sun. It glowed and a gummi came out and fell into Sora's hands. Then the mural changed into a crescent moon. Sora grinned. "Thank you Cetra Sense…"

"Now we can go get Riku back!" Sora's face fell. "Sora? Is something wrong? You don't think…Riku could be dead?"

"No! No, that's not it! Our hearts are all connected. If I was able to come back from the darkness, I'm sure that Riku can too. It's just…"

"Just?"

"You can't go."

Kairi immediately looked upset. "Why not? !"

"I'm sorry. It's just…you can't fight! At all! And that place is full of Heartless!"

"But we were together this whole time! Shouldn't we stick together 'till the end? !"

"It's too dangerous! You'll just get in my way!" He instantly regretted that when he saw Kairi's face. "Sorry, that didn't come out right."

Kairi turned towards the mural. "Fine, you win."

Sora winced. "I didn't mean…It's just…" Sora sighed. "I just don't want to lose you again. That's all."

"I know, but did you have to say it like that?"

"I didn't mean to. That's just how it came out." Being a normal kid was harder than he thought. "Being normal is so hard…"

For a while, the two were silent, staring up at the altered mural. They both did some thinking. Sora put a hand over his heart. "Maybe…you will be with me." Kairi gave him a slightly confused look. "Like I said, our hearts our connected, so why won't a part of you be with me?" Sora scratched the back of his head nervously. "Never thought I'd be talking like this…"

Kairi looked over at Sora. He really did seem sorry about what he said, and she did understand that her going to Hollow Bastion wasn't really a good idea. Still…she wanted to do something. "Oh!"

"Hm?"

"Your keychains!"

"The charms?" Sora glanced at the chain wrapped around his arm. "Yeah, I'm not sure where they come from, but they're useful."

Kairi immediately reached into her pocket and pulled out a charm that was made out of seashells that had a smiley face drawn on it. There was a thin silver chain coming out of the shell with the face. "Use this!"

Sora blinked. "You mean as a Keyblade?"

"Yeah!"

Sora took it carefully. "Isn't this the charm you were making when we were building the raft?"

"Yep! It's my lucky charm! You can keep it even if it doesn't work but you have to promise to bring it back to me!"

Sora summoned his Keyblade and switched it with Olympia. The Keyblade changed so that it now had a mainly silver color, the hand guards seemed to be angel wings, there was a heart and a couple of spikes on the guard, there was a heart near the end of the shaft, and the teeth were blue and gold and somewhat resembled the kanji for light. Sora immediately knew what to call it. "Oathkeeper." It was a very fitting name considering the promise Kairi just had him make.

"See? You'll bring it and Riku back to me! This proves it!" Sora looked at Kairi. She was smiling again. He smiled back. Then she suddenly hugged him, making him blush bright red. "Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."

"R-Right." Kairi pulled back and got a good look at Sora. She giggled when she saw his surprised, red face. One bad thing about being a Tsviet: You know nothing about romance.

"C'mon, let's go back to Cid's house." Kairi grabbed Sora's hand and pulled him away toward the sewer entrance. Sora was still blushing.

Meanwhile, Aladdin had gotten the shock of his life.

"You have a sword made out of diamond? !" When he'd asked about a new sword, Donald's nephews had produced a sword with a diamond blade. "Where do you even get a diamond big enough to make a sword? !" That was a very good question.

"Moogles make them," said Louie. "You just need enough carbon. It's kinda expensive though."

"You guys can make jewels? !"

"Calm down already," said Donald. "You got anything for me and Goofy?" The boys shook their heads. "Okay, we'll take the sword. How much?"

"10,000 munny."

"That much? !"

Meanwhile, Goofy was trying to figure out what Sora would get if he was the one getting the synthesizing stuff. He knew not to get any of the things they already had, but that was it. He decided to just get one of what he could. He ended up getting a Mega-Ether, a Defense Up, a Gaia Bangle, a Heartguard, a Titan Chain, and a Crystal Crown. Sora and Aladdin had gotten a lot of synthesis items while separated from Goofy and Donald. Aladdin must have been stealing from the Heartless again…

Eventually, everyone made their way back to Cid's house.

"So, did ya get the gummi?" asked Cid. Sora just nodded. "Good ta hear!" He frowned as he took a closer look at Sora and noticed that he was redder than usual. "What're you all red for?"

"Oh my Leviathan! Sora's blushing!" Yuffie was instantly up in the two younger teens' faces with a mischievous grin on her face. "What did you two do in the sewers? !" That made Kairi blush too and made Sora's blush deepen.

Leon sighed. "Yuffie…Leave them alone."

"Kairi was just giving me a new Keychain! That's all!" said Sora. Then he summoned his newest Keyblade form to prove it. Kairi quickly nodded in agreement.

"Yeah! We just talked some while Sora was getting the gummi!"

"I believe you," said Aerith. "Kairi, are you going with Sora?"

Kairi shook her head. "I'd just get in the way, so I'll stay here with you guys."

"Can we leave now?" asked Aladdin. "I'm really worried about Jasmine.

"Hold your horses! I gotta install the gummi first!" Cid walked out muttering about impatient kids.

"So, what should we do while we wait?" asked Goofy.

"You could show me around and introduce me to people," suggested Kairi. "So far, Sora's just showed me this house and the sewers."

Sora pointed at Leon. "That's Leon. He's a really good fighter. He uses a gunblade, sort of like what Weiss uses." He pointed at Yuffie. "That's Yuffie. She's a Wutain. We're from the same world. She's a ninja, and she's fun to hang around, but I'm pretty sure she's a kleptomaniac." Yuffie gave him an insulted look.

"Hey!"

Sora moved on. "That's Aerith. We're from the same world too. She's nice and motherly and has some weird powers. She's sort of like a girl version of Kimihiro."

Aerith giggled. "I remember you mentioning him before…I'll have to meet him sometime."

Sora turned his attention to his traveling companions. "You've already met Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin. Donald's got a bit of a temper, but he's okay when he's not yelling. He's a really powerful mage too. Goofy is…well…goofy, but he's a good friend. He uses a shield. I'm not sure how that works. Aladdin kind of tagged along. He's a nice guy, but I think he's a kleptomaniac too."

Aladdin just shrugged at that. "I only steal what I can't afford."

"Now, c'mon. I wanna introduce you to everyone else." Sora quickly dragged her out of Cid's house.

"Should we follow them?" asked Aladdin.

"Ah, they'll be okay," said Goofy. "Sora won't let anything happen to Kairi."

Meanwhile, Sora had gotten Kairi over to Merlin's house. "Merlin, this is Kairi. Kairi, Merlin"

"Oh, hello young lady." He adjusted his glasses. "Hm…your heart seems to radiate quite a bit more light than a normal one."

"She's supposed to be a princess of heart," explained Sora. Merlin nodded in understanding.

"That would explain it." He paused in thought as he gave Kairi a quick look over. "Do you wish to learn magic?"

Kairi perked up a bit. "You'd teach me?"

Merlin nodded. "I'd expect you to have some sort of power with a title like that. Of course, that's only if you'd like to learn."

"I'd love to!"

"Good to hear. You should also meet the Fairy Godmother." Said fairy made her appearance at that moment.

"Hello dear."

Kairi gave a respectful bow. "Hello."

The Fairy Godmother turned to Sora. "Thank you for finding a way to return Cinderella's heart."

"Who?"

"She is also a princess of heart."

"Oh. Which one?"

"I believe she was wearing a powder blue dress when our world disappeared."

Sora thought for a moment. "Yeah, I think there was a girl dressed like that." Then he pulled out the red gem Aladdin had given him. "By the way, Aladdin gave this to me on the way back here. He thought it might be a summon gem."

"It is." The Fairy Godmother waved her wand, allowing Sora to connect with the entity within the gem.

"_Okay, who's idea was it to stuff me in a tiny little rock? !"_ Sora blinked at that.

"_I have no idea."_

"_Who're you? ! Some sort of sorcerer or something?"_

"_I'm a Tsviet."_

"_You let me out right now or I'm gonna hafta show you the power of a guardian of the Fa family!"_

"_I have a better idea."_ Sora promptly shoved Mushu into the part of his mind he'd been keeping the other summon creatures when he wanted some privacy. Hopefully Simba could explain things to the vocal summon. "I'm gonna wait to try that one out. He's being uncooperative right now."

Kairi tilted her head. "You have others?" Sora nodded. "Can I see them?" Sora nodded.

"Sure."

Meanwhile, Cid was back. "Okay, I got the navi-gummi installed. You can leave whenever you like."

Aladdin pumped a fist, something else he'd picked up from traveling. "Great! I really want to see if Jasmine is okay."

"Before we go, I wanna ask about something," said Donald.

Yuffie chuckled. "Usually, Sora's the one asking question." He just shrugged.

"Yeah, but something weird happened to him back in Hollow Bastion."

"You mean how he turned into a Shadow?" asked Aladdin. Donald shook his head.

"No."

Goofy's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, you mean when he started attacking us, don't ya?"

Leon frowned. "He attacked you?"

"Oh dear, what happened?" asked Aerith. She looked particularly worried.

"He screamed, grabbed his head, and when he stopped screaming, he changed the Keyblade's form and attacked us," recounted Donald. "He wasn't acting like himself. He tried to stab me, but stopped himself by grabbing the blade. Then he fell over unconscious until after we fought Maleficent."

"Oh, his eyes changed too," said Goofy. "They were greenish. With cat pupils!"

"Sounds like Sephiroth's eyes," said Yuffie

"He had slit pupils?" asked Aerith. "That sounds about right. Maybe it's because of an experiment?"

Cid snorted. "Wouldn't surprise me one bit. Those bastards wouldn't care one bit about messing up a kid like that."

Leon frowned. "This is important. Why didn't you mention it before?"

"I wasn't there," said Aladdin.

Donald scratched the back of his head nervously. "Uh…"

"We didn't wanna bring it up around Sora," explained Goofy. "'Cause it was right before we decided going with Riku was a mistake."

"Still, this is serious." Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Someone is able to possess Sora. What if he tries to do it again?"

"I wouldn't worry about it," said Aladdin. "Sora was able to snap out of it, wasn't he? I bet he can do it again if he needs to."

"You better hope he can." said Yuffie. "It sounds like whoever took control of him wouldn't have a problem killing you three!"

"Maybe we can get something to exorcise him or something," said Aladdin.

"Where'd you hear about exorcisms?" asked Leon. It didn't seem like something they'd have in Agrabah.

"Halloween Town." Of course those guys would know about exorcisms.

"Sorry, no one in Traverse Town knows how to do something like that," said Aerith.

That was when Sora walked in, and everyone quickly stopped talking. They didn't want Sora knowing they were discussing whether he'd get possessed again. "Kairi's gonna stay with Merlin and the Fairy Godmother so she can learn magic. That way she won't be so defenseless."

Aerith nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. You won't have to worry about her so much that way."

"Do you think Jasmine could learn magic?" asked Aladdin.

"Well, she's a princess of heart too," said Sora. "It might be possible. First we have to go get her though."

Aladdin grinned. "Then what're we waiting for? Let's go!"

"And we'll come with you!" said Yuffie.

Sora looked at them. "All of you?"

"Not me," said Cid. "I'm old and I have other things to do. Aerith ain't going neither. She ain't a fighter."

Aerith nodded. "It's true. I'm more of a housewife."

"Well, let's go then." The group of six then got on the gummi ship to go to Hollow Bastion. They had to go through another of those swirling vortexes though. And it turned out Yuffie got really bad motion sickness. She spent the entire trip in the bathroom being sick.

When they got there, Beast was waiting for them in front of the falls. Fortunately, Yuffie and Leon had been told about Beast so they didn't attack him. They were still noticeably surprised by his appearance though. Beast growled at them. "Who are these two?"

"They're Leon and Yuffie. They're fighters too," explained Sora.

"Wow, you're really fluffy!" said Yuffie. The look on Beast's face said that he had no idea how to respond to this statement. Yuffie looked around. "Where's this Belle chick Sora told us about? Still being held hostage by the Heartless?"

"No…" Beast gave the males a look as if asking where they'd gotten the hyper ninja. "She's still in the castle, but she stayed of her own free will. The other princesses are inside as well."

Leon frowned. "What are they doing still inside? It's dangerous with all the Heartless that must be in there."

Sora grinned. "Let's go ask them."

"You may need my strength," said Beast. "I'll go with you."

"Good, this place is even worse off than I thought it would be," said Leon. "The Heartless did a real number on it."

So the seven worked their way through the castle until they got to the library. At that point, Beast seemed to get a bit twitchy and started looking around quite a bit. They saw why when they got up the stairs. A pretty young woman in a yellow ball gown with her brown hair in a bun was looking at a book.

"Belle!"

The young woman turned around and her eyes lit up. She ran over and threw her arms around Beast. The others let them have a private moment until Belle backed up. "I'm so glad you're all right! I was worried that the darkness got you!"

"Where are the other princesses?" asked Leon.

Belle looked over at the group. "You helped Beast before right?" Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin nodded. "Thank you so much. The others are in the chapel. We've been holding back the darkness raging inside the Keyhole, but we won't be able to hold it back much longer."

Yuffie put up a hand. "Question! If that's going on, then why are you in here instead of over there?"

"Well, we don't need to be anywhere in particular to hold it back." Then Belle gestured towards all the bookshelves below them. "And look at all these books here! I bet I've never read any of them!"

That made everyone raise an eyebrow. Leon was the one who said what was on their minds. "You're a bookworm, aren't you?" Both Belle and Beast nodded.

"Well, we'll take care of it," said Sora. "Don't worry."

"There's one more thing." Belle held out a rose charm. "I thought you might be able to use it."

"Thanks." Sora took it and looked it over. "Well I might as well try it out." He summoned Oathkeeper and switched the charms. The Keyblade changed to a more plant-like form. The hand guards looked like they were made of stained glass panels, there were some pointy green leaves where the shaft met the handle, and the shaft was a bit thicker than normal and a dark purple with a thorny stem twisting up it. At the end, a red rose extended out of the shaft as the teeth. The rose charm was attached to a silver chain. "Divine rose…It's…nice."

"Hm…" Belle looked over the Keyblade. "I think the other one will be better for what you have to face in the chapel. It had a sort of light element to it."

"You don't mind?" Belle shook her head. "Okay, thanks." Sora really wanted to use Kairi's Keyblade for this. He quickly switched back to Oathkeeper.

"We should get going," said Leon.

"I'll go to the chapel with you," said Belle. "We want to give you something."

The group of seven plus Belle moved on towards the chapel. Belle stayed out of the way while they fought Heartless. It was surprising how easily she could move around in that dress.

When they got to the chapel, the other five girls were there. Aladdin and Jasmine immediately ran up to each other. "You came back!"

"Yep!"

Jasmine gave his clothes an odd look. They were different from the clothes normally seen in Agrabah. "What happened to your clothes?"

Aladdin chuckled nervously. "They got set on fire. There wasn't much left so Yuffie gave me some spare clothes she had lying around."

"So that's why you were running around in those torn up clothes before." Aladdin sputtered a bit as all the girls present giggled at him. Seems they'd been aware of what was happening at some point. Then the one in the powder blue ball gown (Sora was assuming this was the Cinderella the Fairy Godmother had mentioned.) turned to Sora.

"We've been waiting for you Keyblade master." She smiled. "It's good to see you're back to your old self."

"No kidding." Sora didn't like being a Heartless. "Is Ansem still in the Keyhole?"

Cinderella nodded. "Yes, but the flood of darkness hasn't stopped. We're working together to hold it back."

The blonde in the darker blue dress shuddered. "I cannot forget the look on his face. As he was engulfed by darkness, he was smiling." Sora shuddered too. That had been a pretty creepy smile even by his standards.

"You guys better hurry," said Jasmine. "The darkness just won't stop pouring out of the Keyhole."

"It's all we can do to hold back the darkness," said Alice.

"I don't know how long we can manage even that," said the last princess. She had black hair and a blue and yellow dress. "We're counting on you Keyblade master."

"But we're gonna help out too," said Belle. "Hold still. We're gonna try something." The princesses held out their hands with their palms facing the party. After a moment, their hands and the party glowed for a couple of moments.

"So, what was that?" asked Yuffie.

"Well, it was supposed to make your magic stronger," said Jasmine. "I guess we won't know if it worked until you try using a spell though."

"Cool!" Yuffie promptly pulled out what looked like a green marble. Sora's eyes widened when he realized what it was.

"Don't-" Too late. She used the materia and froze half a wall. She nearly hit Alice as well.

"Awesome! Whatever you did worked!" Sora couldn't help but wonder if the princesses were going to regret upgrading Yuffie's magic.

So, the group continued to make its way to the big Keyhole. The Heartless were becoming more concentrated, which was becoming quite a bit of a problem. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any traps to keep them away from it.

Leon looked up at the vortex. "So, this is the Keyhole Maleficent kidnapped those girls to make…"

"Well, it looks creepy," said Yuffie. She turned to Sora. "Can you lock it or what?"

Sora summoned his Keyblade and pointed it towards the Keyhole. Nothing happened. "I guess something's keeping it from happening…"

"Does that mean we have to go in there?" asked Aladdin.

"Looks like it."

They headed inside it. It was easy. There was no resistance, and it didn't make them feel any different from normal. It was just that there was a giant Heartless inside. It was even bigger than Cerberus.

"What is that? !" shouted Yuffie.

"It's a Behemoth," said Sora. He, Yuffie, and Leon all sweatdropped at the name. It didn't look anything like the Behemoth they were used to. It was big and purple, with cleft hooves, tusks, an overbite, beady yellow eyes, one horn in the center of its forehead, and no tail or mane. "IT's immune to Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder magic."

"But we just got our magic upgraded!" complained Yuffie. The Behemoth snorted and its horn started flashing. Then a bunch of electricity shot out and hit everyone. Donald and Sora quickly used some Curagas.

"Any weak spots?" asked Leon.

"It's horn!" That would normally be a bit difficult to reach, but Sora was able to jump up onto its head. So was Yuffie. Must be her ninja training. Donald settled for casting spells directly on the horn. The others decided to just settle for distracting the giant Heartless. The Behemoth quickly decided that it wasn't going to be able to get Yuffie and Sora off so it decided to try and go for Donald instead. This is why distractions were needed. Aladdin and Leon would go in to try and make it focus on them instead of Donald. Goofy was making sure no one got hit by its tusks when it tried to sideswipe someone. It turned out the Behemoth wasn't as tough as it looked. It only took a few minutes to take care of it. After it had faded away, the group walked forward until they found a Keyhole seemingly just floating there.

"So, will locking this Keyhole have any effect on the Heartless?" asked Sora.

"If nothing else, it will weaken the darkness and Heartless," said Leon.

"Good enough." Sora pointed his Keyblade at the Keyhole, a beam shot out into it, and a locking sound was heard by the group. Everyone stood still for a moment after this. After a few minutes of nothing happening, they left it. The outside looked the same as well. Everyone started spreading out to see if anything was different. Sora paused as he stepped on something. He looked down and saw what looked like a black version of his crown charm. Sora frowned and picked it up. _"Isn't this Riku's charm? Did he drop it after the fight?"_ He decided to worry about it later and slipped it into his pocket.

"Did anyone find anything?" asked Leon.

"I found puppies!" shouted Yuffie. That seemed to be the only notable thing that had been found so they made their way back to the princesses, who all looked quite a bit relieved.

"Thank you Sora," said Alice. "I think the darkness is starting to weaken now."

Jasmine frowned. "But we can feel a powerful darkness growing somewhere far away."

"It's the heart of the darkness," said the blonde in the darker blue dress. "It must be where Ansem went."

"We'll take the gummi ship there and take care of him and the Heartless then," said Sora.

Cinderella smiled at him. "That's good to hear. Everything will go back to the way it was."

"What do you mean?" asked Aladdin.

"All the worlds should be restored, including Sora's island if you defeat Ansem." Everyone turned around to see Aerith and Cid.

"You guys came?" asked Yuffie.

"The Heartless got a lot weaker," explained Cid. "Figured it was safe to come check things out. Place is a *beep* mess."

"So beating Ansem will fix everything?" asked Sora. That was good. While he'd admitted to wanting to try to be a normal kid, he was still good at killing things. He just hoped killing Ansem wouldn't kill Riku.

"Yeah, but it'll also mean good-bye," said Yuffie.

Aerith nodded. "The worlds will all be separate again."

Yuffie looked down. "Everyone will go back to where they belong."

"You guys can visit with your gummi ship though, right?" asked Aladdin. He was answered with a silence. "Right?"

"It's not that simple," said Leon.

"Before all this happened, you guys didn't know about the other worlds, right?" asked Yuffie.

"It was because the worlds were divided by impassable walls," explained Aerith.

"The Heartless destroyed those walls," continued Cid. "Once the worlds come back, so do the walls. Won't be able to go to other worlds even with a gummi ship then."

Sora frowned. "You mean we'll never see each other again?" The silence was answer enough.

"We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other," said Leon. He seemed especially depressed. It occurred to Sora that Leon didn't actually know anyone else from this world, even though it was his home world. He was probably going to be lonely once the worlds were restored…

Aerith nodded, a bit sadly. "It doesn't matter where we are, our hearts will bring us together again."

"Besides, I couldn't forget you guys, even if I wanted to!" chimed in Yuffie.

"What's that supposed to mean? !" shouted a slightly indignant Donald.

"Actually, there's a bit of problem," said Belle. Everyone looked at her. "I was reading some of the reports in the library. I thought I might find out something useful. I found one that talked about those things, but it mentioned that there are circumstances that can keep it from happening."

"What sort of circumstances?" asked Leon.

"Well, have you ever heard the expression 'Home is where the heart is?'" Everyone nodded. "Well, it said that if someone has a stronger bond to a world than their home world, they end up there instead."

"That might be good thing," mused Sora. "Kairi's not actually from Destiny Islands. It would be awful if she ended up in a world she doesn't even remember." _"Plus I do not want to go back to Midgar. Please let me go back to Destiny Islands instead."_

Belle nodded. "Yeah, she has amnesia, right? She'll probably end up back on your islands. It also said that if people are in certain places, they get stuck there. I think that the place where Ansem is right now is one of those places."

"What, so we might get stuck here if we go there?" asked Aladdin. Belle nodded. Aladdin sighed. "So, what do we do about that?"

"I'm going," said Sora. "I'm not going back to the islands without Riku."

"We're going too!" said Donald. Goofy nodded in agreement.

"I'd like to go too," said Aladdin.

Jasmine sighed. "I figured you'd say that…" Aladdin winced and got a rather guilty look on his face.

"Sorry, it's just…If someone doesn't do something about this guy, he might try doing something with you again."

"But what about you?"

Aladdin grinned. "I'll be okay. And if I don't automatically go back to Agrabah, I'm sure I can find my way back there!"

"Well, I think Beast should stay here," said Belle. Beast gave her a questioning look. "You already came here without a vessel. I'm worried that if you go there, you won't survive it." She had very good points so Beast nodded.

"Unfortunately, someone's gonna have to be around to rebuild things here when everything's over," said Leon. "Since I'm the only one who's sure to stay here after the worlds are restored, I'll have to leave this to you."

"I'll go!" said Yuffie.

"Yuffie, you have those responsibilities," said Aerith.

"But-"

"You better not go either."

"Wutai will be fine without me!"

"Except you're an only child." Yuffie grumbled under her breath about the unfairness of that decision.

"That's four people," said Sora. "That seems a bit…small for a group to that's trying to save the multiverse."

Cid shrugged. "What can ya do?"

"We could explore this place," suggested Yuffie. Everyone gave her an odd look. "What? They might have some useful stuff."

"I'll go too," volunteered Aladdin.

"Go ahead," said Sora. The two thieves ran off. Jasmine raised a questioning eyebrow. "They're both kleptomaniacs. I'm pretty sure they teamed up and robbed the lockers at the Coliseum."

"Yuffie has a point," said Leon. "You might want to wait a few days to go and see if you can find anything useful on any of the worlds you've been to before."

Sora nodded. "That's probably a good idea. We'll look around after Aladdin and Yuffie get back."

That took about an hour. They spent the time getting to know the princesses. They were nice, but Jasmine and Belle seemed to have a rebellious streak in them.

When Aladdin and Yuffie got back, they had more puppies so the boys decided to make Traverse Town their first stop and beamed straight down into the Dalmatians house.

"I think that's all puppies," said Goofy.

"Thank goodness. It was always so weird finding puppies in chests or somewhere dangerous," said Sora.

"I kinda liked finding them," said Aladdin.

The male dog pushed a box over to Sora. He opened it, and a bunch of gummi blocks started shooting out of it. It took an hour to gather them all up and sort them. Where the Dalmatians got all the gummi blocks, they had no idea.

The next stop was Merlin's to say hi to Kairi.

"Sora! Did you find Riku?"

Sora winced and shook his head. "I didn't even see Ansem there. The other princesses said he was somewhere else."

Kairi looked down. "That dark place, right?"

"Probably."

Kairi frowned. "But it seems like Riku's here…"

Sora reached into his pocket and pulled out the black crown charm. "Maybe it's this?"

"That looks like your crown necklace," said Donald.

"I gave him and Riku those charms," said Kairi. "I gave Riku the black one…" Kairi frowned at Sora. "Where did you get this?"

"I found it in front of the Keyhole in Hollow Bastion. It's where I found you and fought Riku. I guess he dropped it when he…you know…"

"Oh…" Kairi looked at it for a moment. "There's something different about it."

"Huh?" Kairi put her hands around the hand gripping the charm. The charm glowed for a moment. The Oathkeeper Keyblade appeared in his hand. Then it suddenly changed form. It now was almost completely black. There was a blue diamond where the hand guards met the shaft, a pair of black bat wings came from the diamond and acted as the hand guards, from the base came a black chain with the black crown charm on the end, the shaft had a sort of chain design on it, and the teeth looked a bit like the kanji for darkness. Sora stared in surprise. "How did you do that?"

"I-I'm not sure."

"Might I suggest something?" Everyone turned towards Merlin. "That charm belonged to Riku, correct?" They nodded. "You both have a very strong connection to him. I think that the majority of the charms used to change the Keyblade's form represent the bond between the wielder and others."

Sora raised an eyebrow. That was news to him. "Really?"

"Yes, Aladdin, you simply found the charm that you gave to Sora?" Aladdin nodded. "I don't think that it was just there. I think that your bond to Sora was given a physical representation. This can be used to change the Keyblade. As such these altered forms are combining your power with the power of the one who gave you a charm. Of course, it's just a theory, and I'm sure it's not completely correct. There are a few charms that don't seem to have a connection to anyone."

"So, it's like two people fighting together." Sora looked at the new Keyblade and found the name. Oblivion. "When I use this, it's like I'm fighting together with Riku." Then Sora took a look at the chain wrapped around his arm and found the Oathkeeper charm. "And when I use this one, it's like I'm fighting together with you." Sora smiled. "If I could use both of them, it would be perfect…"

"Would you like to try your new summon now?" asked Merlin. That got a couple of surprised looks.

"Where'd you get another summon?" asked Donald.

"Aladdin gave me a gem he found that he thought might be a summon gem. Turns out he was right. It's a little…weird though."

They went upstairs and Sora quickly started the summoning process. The result was a dragon. A very small, red Chinese dragon. Standing on Sora's head. "It's about time! What's the big idea stuffing me in with that overgrown pussy cat and a couple of babies?"

"It can talk?" asked Aladdin.

"Oh I can do more than talk!" Then he spat out some small fireballs at Aladdin, who promptly dodged them. "Yeah that's right! You better run!"

"But I'm not running…"

"Oh yeah? !" The dragon took another deep breath, but Sora reached up and clamped its mouth shut before it could do that and brought it down so he could look it in the eye.

"Look, it you're going to spit fire at everyone, I'm going to send you back to where you were before and never summon you again. Which means you'll have to put up with Simba after calling him an overgrown pussy cat. Got it?" The dragon nodded. "Good. Now, I think I figured out what you can do, and our time's about up, so bye." Then the little dragon disappeared.

"That was strange," said Donald.

"No kidding," agreed Sora.

"His other summons weren't like that…" asked Kairi.

"No," said Merlin. "He was just a rather odd summon. It happens sometimes."

They didn't have much else to do after that. They decided to show Aladdin the two worlds he hadn't been shown before. First up was Wonderland.

"Wow, this place is really confusing."

"Yeah, that's Wonderland for you." Sora walked down the wall and poked at a picture. "This is like water over here."

"Can you drown in it?"

"Good question." Sora jumped in. He came out a moment later. "It just goes to that weird forest." He held up a card charm on a chain. "I found this."

"Will it change you Keyblade?" asked Donald.

It did. It turned it into a Keyblade called Lady Luck. Sora decided he preferred Oblivion though and switched it back. Then it was time to go to Deep Jungle.

Jane tilted her head at the Arabian. "Oh, you're new…"

"I'm Aladdin."

"Are you here to see the gorillas?" Aladdin blinked.

"What's a gorilla?" And then Jane got into a long explanation about gorillas and the other fauna indigenous to Africa. Tarzan just watched in amusement. Aladdin decided he didn't need to meet Prof. Porter so they left afterwards.

"So, is that it?" asked Aladdin.

"I'd like to go to the place the Princesses keep mentioning as soon as possible," explained Sora. "I don't know what it's like there, but if Riku is there, I'm sure he's not enjoying it."

That was when the gummi ship consol beeped. Donald pressed a button. "Yeah? What is it?"

"There's a tournament at the Coliseum. You guys should go check it out!"

Everyone looked at Sora. He nodded. "It might be a good idea. The prizes are usually useful, and it might be good practice for what we'll have to go through."

"Okay, time to go to the Coliseum then."

**End Chapter!**

Yeah, I'm going to do the Hades Cup, but because it's so epic, it gets its own chapter.

I always wondered why the FF characters never went with Sora. Ever. If they wanted to save their world, wouldn't it make sense to go with the guy who can fix things? Especially if it's a kid who has no experience fighting monsters? (I'm talking about canon Sora there.)

The Tsviets have had enough of an influence on Kairi that she's going to learn magic to avoid being a burden.

When the princesses updated Sora's magic, they updated all of it, not just his fire magic.

**Omake: I'm a princess too!**

"Excuse me? Miss Yuffie?" Yuffie looked at the English princess with a raised eyebrow. She'd never been called Miss before. It sounded weird.

"Just call me Yuffie. What is it?"

"Why wouldn't Miss Aerith let you go with Sora?"

That made Yuffie get noticeably nervous. She coughed into her hand. "Well, you see…Aerith can be pretty overprotective when she wants to be."

"But she mentioned responsibilities," pointed out Belle. Seemed Alice's question had caught the other princesses' attention, and Belle seemed to be curious about it too. Actually, the other princesses were starting to come over to find out just why Yuffie couldn't go.

"What sort of responsibilities?" asked Jasmine. "I know you're a thief, but that's all we know about you…"

"Maybe you have someone you have to provide for?," suggested Snow White.

"Not really…"

"No family?"

"Just my old man. We don't get along…"

"Do you have some other job maybe?" asked Cinderella.

"Not unless you count killing Heartless."

That was when Cid decided to walk in. "What're you all crowding around for?"

"We're just trying to figure out why Yuffie couldn't go with Sora," explained Aurora.

"Oh, that's all? It's 'cause she's a princess." There was an awkward silence.

"Cid! That's supposed to be a secret!" The Princesses just stared at Yuffie in shock.

"You mean…you're a princess too? !" asked Snow White. It was quite a shock considering what Yuffie was like.

"Yeah, she is," said Cid. "It's just that the royalty is trained to fight where she comes from. It's why she's such a tomboy."

"Cid!"

"'Course Wutai is pretty poor so she doesn't get the stuff princesses usually get…"

"Seriously shut up!"

"Uh, Yuffie, if you're a princess, why don't you want anyone to know about it?" asked Alice.

Yuffie twitched. She didn't seem very happy about getting revealed. "Because I hate being a princess! My old man wanted a boy, and since he's not getting one, he wants me to get married and give him a grandson!"

"I can understand that," muttered Jasmine.

"And 'cause dad messed up so badly in the war, Wutai's been turned into a tourist town! And no one's doing anything about it! It's so humiliating that I'm almost glad that the Heartless came and destroyed it so that no one can see what's become of it!"

"Aw great, she's on a rant," muttered Cid. "Better settle down. We're gonna be here for a while."

The princesses just kept staring at the most unprincessy princess in the history of ever. Unless you count Faris. That would bring up the Pirates vs. Ninjas issue though so we won't get into that.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20 is here! It's the Hades cup. Hopefully I can fit it all into one chapter. I may try to fit in the extra matches as well. I'll probably try skipping past most of the minor matches for the sake of keeping this chapter from getting too long.

Look for a surprise in this chapter!

I still don't own anything.

**Chapter Start**

"So, you wanna sign up for the Hades Cup?" asked Phil. The boys had just gone up to him after getting to the Coliseum. He easily figured out why they were there.

"Yeah," said Sora. "Is Aladdin still not allowed to compete with us?"

"Nope."

"Then I'm gonna go get some popcorn." Aladdin headed off. Sora doubted he was actually going to get popcorn.

"Try to get some practice in," shouted Sora.

So, they got signed up and headed out for their first match. It was 3 Soldiers and 7 Shadows. There wasn't much that happened there. They're not hard to take care of.

The second match was against 3 Wight Knights and 4 Powerwilds. That was more difficult due to the Wight Knights' long reach, but Donald's spells took care of that problem. The Powerwilds weren't really that much of a problem.

The third match was against a pair of 'Hammer Legs,' 2 Shadows, and 4 Pirates. Due to Sora still reacting badly to any parts of a Guard Armor, he went completely nuts on the Heartless, wiping them out in about a minute.

The fourth match was against a Powerwild and 8 Pot Spiders. Pot Spiders break easily. Didn't really have to put in a lot of effort.

The fifth match was a Rare Truffle. Because Sora was in a hurry, he just bopped it on the head to make it go away.

The sixth match…was Yuffie. "Oh yeah! Rematch time!"

"You had Leon with you last time though," pointed out Goofy. Yuffie sweatdropped.

"I'm going all out right away this time though!" Yuffie summoned her glowing blue remote-control shuriken. She promptly threw it at Sora, who dodged. It came back around and started chasing him as he continued dodging it.

"Goofy! Cover me!"

"Right!"

Sora quickly dismissed the Keyblade and pulled out his daggers. He didn't want to risk doing something…unpredictable to the ninja. Yuffie started tossing shuriken at him. Sora started blocking them and knocking them to the ground. Then Donald shot a Firaga at Yuffie. Yuffie had to jump away to avoid getting hit by it. This allowed Sora to close in on her. He feinted and did a sweep on her that knocked her to the ground. Yuffie did catch herself, but Sora hit her with a Graviga to keep her down and bent down to put his knives on her neck. "Do you give?"

"Okay, okay! I give!" Poor Yuffie. She just can't seem to get a break. She chose to complain about this once they were off the field. "I keep losing to you! Can't I get a break? The only time I've ever gotten a jump on you was when I knocked you out while you were fighting Leon…"

Sora blinked. "That was you?" Yuffie's eyes widened and she giggled nervously.

"Oh, right, I forgot you didn't know about that…" Everyone sweatdropped. "Peace offering!" Then she pulled out something, thrust it into Sora's arms, and ran off.

"What was that about?" asked Donald.

"I'm not completely sure…" Sora took a look at it. It seemed to be a shield made out of bandages with three tomoe on it. It was obviously meant for Goofy. Something else was on Sora's mind though. "Why didn't Yuffie use this in the match?" Then he frowned as he realized something. "Where was she keeping this?" That was a very good question. However, the only one who could answer that was Yuffie, and she was probably sneaking into the locker rooms again.

After the match with Yuffie, the boys had to fight 3 Bandits and 4 Pirates. Not really as difficult as Yuffie. It was very easy to take care of them.

The eighth match was against 1 Defender, 2 Soldiers, and 3 Wight Knights. The Soldiers were easily dealt with, and Sora and Donald took care of the Wight Knights by setting their bandages on fire, which caused them to run around trying to put them out. The Defender was a bit difficult to take care of since they had to get behind it while avoiding the panicking Wight Knights, but they were able to kill it after a couple of minutes and then finished off the weakened Wight Knights.

The ninth match was a Bandit, 2 Powerwilds, a Large Body, a Fat Bandit, and a Soldier. It wasn't that hard to take care of them. They just used magic on the two big Heartless to get rid of them first and then dealt with the others.

The tenth match…was another Behemoth.

"There's more than one of these?" asked Sora.

"I guess it's like Guard Armor," said Goofy. Sora shuddered a bit at the name, but was otherwise fine.

"Let's just do the strategy from last time." With that, Sora jumped onto the Behemoth's head and started attacking its horn. The Behemoth did not like this so it shook its head to try and dislodge the Tsviet. Not only did this not work, it gave Donald ample opportunity to shoot at its horn with his magic. Realizing that just shaking its head wasn't going to work, The Behemoth stomped its foot and started summoning lightning to try and hit its opponents. Fortunately for them, Donald had thought ahead and given everyone an Aeroga shield so it didn't do too much damage if they failed to dodge one. So, like the last Behemoth, this one didn't do anything irreparable and it was taken down after several minutes of attacking, defending, and countering.

The eleventh match was much easier: a Search Ghost and 8 Red Nocturnes. They were easily taken care of with a bunch of Blizzaga spells.

The twelfth match had 7 Blue Rhapsodies and 2 Gargoyles. The Blue Rhapsodies were easily taken care of with some Firaga spells. The Gargoyles were as annoying as ever, but at least there were only two of them this time. It made it much easier to hit and ground them with Graviga.

The thirteenth match was a Guard Armor, 2 Red Nocturnes, and 2 Blue Rhapsodies. Sora reacted to a whole armor even worse than he did two parts of it and started attacking the Guard Armor so quickly and relentlessly that it had no chance to try to retaliate. Donald and Goofy took care of the floating Heartless while Sora was busy with the Guard Armor.

The fourteenth match a Black Fungus and 4 Green Requiems. That was a bit of a problem, simply because of the Black Fungus. Sora and Goofy took care of the Green Requiems while Donald pelted the Black Fungus with spells. It turned to stone after a couple of hits. Goofy and Sora had taken care of the Green Requiems by then so everyone avoided the Black Fungus until it turned back to normal. Then Sora slashed it in two.

The fifteenth match was against 3 Red Nocturnes, 3 Yellow Operas, and 2 Pot Spiders. The Pot Spiders were smashed by Goofy while Sora and Donald hit the floating Heartless with various spells.

The sixteenth match was against 2 Blue Rhapsodies, 4 Green Requiems, and a Stealth Sneak. First, they got rid of the Green Requiems. They didn't want the Stealth Sneak to be healed. Then Donald and Sora each took care of a Blue Rhapsody. The Stealth Sneak took a few minutes to kill, but its attacks didn't give them too much trouble. It was an endurance fight again.

The seventeenth match was a Wizard, 4 Yellow Operas, 2 Blue Rhapsodies, and 2 Red Nocturnes. The lack of physical defense made it easy to get rid of them, although the Wizard did take a bit longer than the others.

The eighteenth match was 3 Wizards and 6 Shadows. The Shadows were easily taken care of. The Wizards were a bit more difficult because they only got rid of one before they started doing the Thunder magic that made it impossible to hit them. After the spell was done though, the Wizards were quickly destroyed.

The nineteenth match was against 4 Wizards and a Heartless that was unfamiliar to the boys. It had four white wings, a white head with a long curl at the top, 3 yellow eyes, and a body that remotely resembled a light bulb and had the Heartless emblem on it.

"Sora, what is that?" asked Donald.

"Angel Star." Sora frowned. "It absorbs Thunder and is invulnerable when covered by its wings." He absentmindedly dodged a Blizzard spell and threw the Keyblade at one of the Wizards. "Can reflect attack back at it? What attack is it talking about?" Then the Angel Star started glowing. A tornado was whipped up, throwing the boys all over the place. They winced as they got up. Sora quickly regained his bearings, jumped up to the Angel Star quickly cut it in two. He didn't want it to do that attack again. The Wizards were easier to take care of.

The next match was a bit of a surprise. It was Cerberus.

"I thought we took care of this thing already!" shouted Donald.

"I guess as the Guardian of the Underworld he has a degree of immortality," mused Sora. Then the three heads tried to take a bite out of all three of them at the same time. They all managed to dodge and Sora and Donald quickly cast Aeroga on themselves. Sora then ran behind it jumped on its back, and ran toward the heads while dragging Oblivion through its body. When he reached the head, he ripped Oblivion out of Cerberus to bury it in one its heads, but had to abandon this plan when it shot shadows out of its mouth and he had to block that. Then he had to try and keep the heads from attacking him. That worked for a few seconds before two attacked at the same time and one managed to bite onto his leg. He winced and hit it with a Firaga, which loosened the jaws enough for Sora to pull out his leg and let himself fall to the ground. Donald quickly ran over and started using Cure.

"You okay?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, Cure was used pretty quickly so I'll be okay." He gave his leg a quick look over. It was still quite sore. He'd probably be able to move around on it, but jumps like the one he'd pulled on Cerberus were out of the question. "I'm not gonna be able to pull that move again."

That was a real shame. It looked like Sora's stunt had worked very well. Cerberus was now favoring his right side and seemed to be having trouble moving his body. That only made him slightly less dangerous though. Cerberus reared back his heads and started puking up darkness. The darkness started following the boys as they ran around to try and avoid it. They at least managed to avoid that. Donald decided to continue keeping his distance and started casting spells on Cerberus. Goofy decided act as a distraction for Cerberus and ran up within biting range of the dog. Sora ran over to the side where he could get a good shot at the long wound in Cerberus's side. Cerberus didn't notice Sora because it was focusing on Goofy. Sora promptly started hitting the injury with Blizzagas.

Interesting fact: Cold blood can cause your heart to fibrillate. In other words, having cold blood suddenly enter your body can kill you. Cerberus's Sora-inflicted wound was still bleeding. The Blizzaga caused some of the blood to cool off, but it wasn't enough to kill something like Cerberus. Cerberus realized Sora was attacking him and tried to turn to face and attack him, but was given quite a bit of trouble due to the injury. Sora just continued to hit the wound with Blizzagas until the large injury was covered in ice. That seemed to be having an effect as Cerberus was starting to twitch very violently. Then he fell to the ground, causing a tremor in the surrounding area. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"_Its aura was depleted this time. Hopefully it'll stay dead this time."_ Sora looked at his leg and winced. He made a note to clean it up…and maybe see if Aerith was willing to patch up his clothes again.

After Cerberus's body was removed (It took a little while due to its size.), the boys' next match was against 4 Air Soldiers and 3 Air Pirates. Sora had to groan at this. Right after his leg got hurt they have to deal with flying enemies. Still, he had his magic and they weren't nearly as bad as Cerberus. He just had to adjust his fighting style to compensate for his injured leg. Not too bad for the most part.

The 22nd match was against 6 Search Ghosts. Not that difficult even if they could teleport.

The 23rd match was against 5 Gargoyles and a pair of floating Gauntlets. Sora once again freaked out and started attacking the pieces of armor. The Gargoyles were actually more of a problem since they could keep their distance and turn into invulnerable balls of fire. It took a bit longer than usual to take care of them.

The 24th match was against roughly half a dozen Shadows. Well, that's what they thought at first. After Sora killed one, another popped up to take its place. Shadows continued to spawn continuously for about 10 minutes. Not that hard to deal with to tell the truth.

The 25th match was against a Bandit, a Wight Knight, a Pirate, a Soldier, and a Power Wild. The biggest problem was the Wight Knight. This wasn't really much of a fight either.

The 30th match was against an Opposite Armor and 6 Darkballs. Sora of course freaked out again and started attacking the Opposite Armor. Donald and Goofy had to deal with the Darkballs on their own. That was difficult, but they managed to pull it off.

The 31st match was against 2 Gargoyles, 3 Air Soldiers, and 2 Air Pirates. Sora was annoyed by the fact that they had to deal with only airborne enemies again. They had to use mainly magic again, but it wasn't too bad. Sora was thankful that he and Donald knew Graviga.

The 32nd match was against 3 Wyverns, 2 Wight Knights, and 2 Search Ghosts. The biggest problem was the Wyverns. Thankfully, the Graviga trick still worked on them.

The 33rd match was against a Battleship, 4 Darkballs, and Wyverns. Graviga didn't ground the Battleship. They had to take care of it with long distance spells and attacks while avoiding bombs. It was more difficult than the previous last few fights.

The next match…their opponents were Cloud and Leon. Seems the two had decided to team up for whatever reason. Donald and Goofy looked quite nervous understandably. Sora was nervous too, but he was trying not to show it. His last fight with Cloud had been ended prematurely by Cerberus, but Cloud had been winning. Likewise, his last fight with Leon would've been a loss if he hadn't had one of his episodes and Leon had forfeited. Now the two had teamed up.

"_This…this is really bad…"_ "Guess I get a rematch with you after all Cloud…"

"I'm not after your life this time, but I'm not going easy on you."

"Gee thanks a lot." _"Okay, I'm gonna have to use one of my drives. Which would be better?"_ Sora had a sudden flashback to the last time he had to fight Cloud and how hard the blond had hit and how fast he'd moved. _"Right, Valor it is."_ He then had to block a strike from Cloud that sent him flying back a few feet. Looks like using his Keyblade in this fight was a good idea. Sora cast an Aeroga to help lessen the blows and promptly had to dodge and block a lot of strikes from Cloud that sent him flying back each time.

Leon seemed to be focusing on Donald and Goofy, mainly Donald since he was the mage. Goofy was keeping Donald safe while Donald tried to cast spells. Donald was getting some spells in, but he had to do quite a bit of dodging when Leon would shoot his own magic past Goofy.

"_If we don't do something, we'll lose! I'll have to try something different! What to do…I got it!"_ When Cloud sent him flying back again, Sora quickly pulled out one of his daggers and threw it at Cloud. He had to block it. That gave Sora enough time to focus and activate one of his drives. He frowned as the smoke started rising. _"Wait a minutes. This doesn't feel like Valor or Wisdom."_

Then Sora transformed. Cloud's eyes widened. That was not the form Sora had used before. Sora was now completely black except for glowing yellow eyes. For some reason, his clothes had been repaired. The Keyblade had disappeared, his hands were now clawed, and there was black smoke swirling around him. The most noticeable thing to Cloud though was the black feathered wing growing out of Sora's right shoulder. This caught Cloud so off guard that he almost wasn't able to block when Sora suddenly appeared in front of him and swiped at his head. He quickly flung Sora back.

"What's wrong with Sora? !" shouted Leon. The other three had seen Sora suddenly transform and had stopped due to the rather unexpected results. "He looks like a Heartless!"

"How should I know? ! I thought he was just doing the same thing as last time!"

Sora looked around somewhat twitchily before suddenly running towards Donald and Goofy. Leon swore and moved to intercept him, but it seemed this new form was even faster than Valor. He got to Donald and Goofy before Leon could even get in front of them, grabbed them, and ran several feet away from the two opponents. Then the Tsviet dropped his teammates, turned, and hissed angrily at the two older men.

"What's that kid doing?" asked Cloud.

"I'm not sure," said Squall. "He's not attacking his team though so he must not be completely mindless." _"Is this a result of Sora becoming a Heartless?"_

Sora suddenly stretched his wing out and the feathers started rising slightly. Then he suddenly flapped it towards the two men. This resulted in several feathers getting sent flying towards the two men. Cloud's eyes widened and he quickly blocked them. Leon couldn't block as many since his sword was smaller. As such, he discovered that the feathers were sharp and fast enough to break the skin and lodge in his body. Leon winced and pulled one out. "The feathers are weapons." The feather in his hand suddenly dissolved into black smoke. "Darkness?"

Cloud was holding his head. "Where have I seen that before?"

Sora took advantage of Cloud's confusion to suddenly dash over to Leon. Leon's eyes widened and he quickly brought up his gunblade. Sora did a large number of very fast strikes, most of which got through. Then Sora unexpectedly did a roundhouse kick to Leon's head that sent him flying into the force field. Cloud's eyes widened.

"Leon!"

Leon sat up with a groan. "I'm fine." He stood up leaning against the wall and holding his head. "The kid hits harder than I remember." Then an ice ball came out of nowhere and hit him in the head. This seemed to be too much for the gunblader. He dropped to the ground unconscious. Cloud sweatdropped and looked over at Sora. He was sitting in a crouch with his hands on the ground and looking around like he'd never seen this place before. Cloud directed his attention to Donald and Goofy instead. Goofy was just staring at Sora in confusion. Donald had his staff outstretched. Sora didn't seem capable of magic at the moment so Cloud decided to assume Donald was the one to knock Leon out. Cloud directed his attention to Sora again.

"_What's wrong with him? He seems like the type of person who'd never goof off like that in the middle of a fight. Then again, is he in his right mind?"_ Cloud's wing twitched a bit. _"Did he even have that wing before?"_ Cloud hefted his sword up. _"I better knock him out before he hurts someone…or himself."_ He unfurled his wing as he started floating and energy crackled over him, catching everyone's attention. Donald and Goofy's eyes widened in shock. Sora cocked his head to the side curiously. Cloud flew up to Sora and started slashing at the Tsviet in a very quick succession that normally Sora would only be able to block at best. It seemed Sora was capable of more than that in this form though. When Cloud started swinging the Buster Sword at Sora, his target grabbed onto the sword. This made Sora a hard target for a close-range fighter to hit. Cloud tried to angle the sword so he could hit Sora with a swing. Sora always twisted his body to avoid the swings though. And he was moving his hands to move closer to Cloud. When he was close enough to Cloud, Sora grabbed his face. Cloud had to stop swinging his sword and grabbed Sora's hand to get it off his face. He did manage to get it off, but it left claw marks, and Sora managed to twist himself so that he landed on Cloud's shoulders. Then an Aeroga shield appeared around Sora courtesy of Donald. Cloud let out a yelp of pain and knocked Sora off his shoulders and jumped away. Sora was instantly on him and clawing, kicking, and even biting the older man. Cloud growled and did the only thing he could think of: He grabbed Sora's wing. Cloud knew from personal experience that it was sensitive body part and easily damaged. Sora let out a strangled sound and let up on his assault. Cloud quickly tossed him away. And that was when Goofy hit him over the head with his shield. Seems Goofy had finally come out of his Sora-induced stupor and had decided to start fighting again. Cloud twitched violently. Then he got bowled over by Sora. What happened next, no one could've predicted. Sora started chewing on Cloud's hair. Cloud twitched again. "What the heck is wrong with this kid? !" He tried to dislodge Sora from his body, but Sora refused to be budged even with all of Cloud's mako enhanced strength. To make things even worse/weirder, this was causing Cloud to have some flashbacks that were really freaking him out. "Okay, I give! Now get him off me!" Everyone watching sweatdropped.

After the match, everyone went to the dugout. Unfortunately, Sora was still transformed. He'd changed his position so that he was still wrapped around Cloud but from behind. And he was still chewing on Cloud's hair with an 'om nom nom' sound. Cloud looked like he was about to have a mental breakdown. "He said no powers of darkness! What does he call this? !"

"I think that was an accident," said Goofy.

That was when Aladdin, Yuffie, Aerith, Cid, and a now awake but slightly dizzy looking Leon came over. "Uh, did Sora turn himself into a Heartless again?" asked Aladdin.

"I don't think he's a Heartless," said Aerith. "If he was, he'd probably try attacking us, or if he kept his mind again, try to tell us he's all right instead of…" Here Aerith had to pause as Sora was still noming Cloud's hair. "What exactly is he doing?"

Cid grinned. "He's chewing the chocobo head's hair of course!" Seems he found this funny.

"I think we should be worrying about what happened and why," said Leon. "He's not attacking anything that moves, but he's not acting in a way Sora would if he was still in his right mind. The smoke surrounding him is present in his two limit forms, so it probably has something to do with them. We need to figure out how to keep this from happening again."

"But he's so cute!" Yuffie came over and started scratching Sora behind the ears, like he was a giant dog made of dark energy. "Besides, he's so innocent. Have you ever seen Sora look this innocent before?" Everyone shuddered as they realized Yuffie was right.

"That's creepy," said Donald.

"Can you please get him off me? !" shouted Cloud.

"Maybe he's hungry," suggested Aladdin. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a loaf of bread from his pocket. "Hey, Sora, I got some bread if you're hungry." That made Sora stop noming on Cloud's hair and look up. He had a gold chain in his mouth with a chocobo charm hanging from one end.

"Why do you have a chocobo charm in your hair?" asked Cid.

"I didn't!"

Sora sniffed a couple of times. Then he jumped off of Cloud…and landed on Leon. Cloud took advantage of this to get as far away from Sora as he could. Meanwhile, everyone stared at Sora, who was now noming Leon's jacket.

"Well, I guess Sora wasn't hungry," said Goofy. Aladdin nodded and stuck the bread back into his surprisingly roomy pockets.

Aerith sweatdropped. "I wonder why Sora keeps chewing on people's things."

"Who cares? It's funny," said Cid, with a big grin. "Wish I had a camera."

"Where's his Keyblade though?" asked Donald. The weapon had disappeared when Sora had transformed.

"Maybe it's because he's similar to a Heartless right now?" suggested Aerith.

"If that's it, then just wait until he changes back," said Yuffie.

"But how will he change back?" asked Goofy. Everyone looked at Sora again.

"How did he change back before?" demanded Leon.

"He just changed back," said Aladdin.

"I think he changed back on his own," added Goofy.

"That's not gonna happen this time," said Donald. Everyone sighed.

"Let's just hope he's back to normal by the time your next match starts."

He wasn't. They had to drag Sora into the ring while he was still transformed and acting odd. That match was against 3 Large Bodies and 2 Wight Knights. As soon as Sora saw them, he let out a hiss, pounced on one of the Wight Knights, and promptly ripped it apart. The Heartless spent the entire match running from Sora (seems he scared them) and getting hit by Donald and Goofy. Not too difficult despite Sora's 'handicap.'

The 36th match was against 3 Fat Bodies and 4 Red Nocturnes. Sora once again jumped the first Heartless he saw, which was one of the Large Bodies. Donald focused on the Red Nocturnes while Goofy helped Sora with the Large Bodies. They still couldn't be hurt from the front, but Sora didn't seem aware of it for the moment.

The 37th match was against 2 Angel Stars, 2 Wyverns, and 3 Fat Bodies. Sora jumped one of the Angel Stars while Donald grounded the Wyverns and started hitting the Fat Bodies with spells. Goofy went after the other Angel Star to try and prevent it from using a tornado attack. Sora finished killing his Angel Stars and moved on to the Wyverns. So, while it seemed like it would be a difficult match, it actually wasn't that bad.

The 38th match was against 7 Darkballs. Well, that's what it looked like at first. After Sora killed his first, another popped up. Seems it was like the Shadow spawning match from earlier, except the Darkballs were more dangerous and harder to kill for obvious reasons. It took them much longer to kill the Darkballs, around 15 minutes.

The 39th match was against a Wyvern, an Air Pirate, an Air Soldier, a Gargoyle, and a Search Ghost. The airborne enemies took a bit longer since they were hard to reach, but with Graviga it wasn't too hard to take care of the Heartless.

The 40th match was against 2 Fat Bandits, 2 Wizards, and an unfamiliar Heartless. It was rather tall and black with a heart-shaped hole in its chest and a long tail with a blade at the end. It was floating a few feet off the ground and was holding a large sword. Sora couldn't tell them what it was due to obvious reasons. Instead he jumped a Fat Bandit and started clawing at it. Donald and Goofy decided to just wing it. Donald started sending spells at the other Fat Bandit. Goofy ran forward to deal with one of the Wizards, but the large Heartless with the sword swung out with its sword and hit Goofy, sending the knight flying. Donald quickly used a Curaga on Goofy while Sora switched targets and attacked the unknown Heartless instead. As soon as he grabbed on though, it stuck its sword into the ground and disappeared. Sora blinked and looked around in confusion for a moment before one of the Wizards hit him in the back with a Fire. Sora instantly spun around and growled at it. That was when the unknown Heartless reappeared and hit Sora in the back with a particularly powerful attack. Donald used another Curaga and then hit the unknown Heartless with a Stopga before it could do anything else. Sora was instantly on it, ripping and tearing at its body. When the Stopga wore off, its body almost seemed to explode before disappearing. By that time, Donald and Goofy had taken care of the other 4 Heartless so the group moved on to the next match.

The 41st match was against 2 Large Bodies, 2 Fat Bandits, and a Defender. Sora seemed to figure out that attacking the Defender's shield was a bad idea after it tried to bite him back. Instead, he scurried over it and started attacking the body. Donald started attacking the obese Heartless while Goofy either attacked them from behind or tried to keep Sora from getting hurt.

The 42nd match was against 3 Defenders. Goofy once again took to attacking from behind while making sure that one of the Defenders wasn't trying to bite Sora. Donald had to attack them from behind, but other than that, his strategy was the same as the other matches: Use lots and lots of spells.

The 43rd match was against 2 Angel Stars and 3 of the large Heartless with swords. This was a bit of a problem since Sora kept getting confused when the large Heartless disappeared, which resulted in getting hit by their attack. And the Angel Stars ended up using their whirlwind attack several times. At least after the first couple times Sora decided to attack the Angel Stars first. Yeah, the matches were getting more difficult.

The 44th match was Hades.

"You entered the tournament? !" shouted Donald.

"Hey, I gotta do something with my free time." Sora really didn't like Hades and jumped him. "Bada boom!" And Sora was sent flying by a fireball to the face. Donald quickly used a Curaga on Sora before casting Aeroga on all three of them. It wasn't a moment too soon. Hades sent a wall of fire at them.

"Uh, isn't Hades the God of the Underworld?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah, that's really bad." Donald had a point. There aren't many people who can defeat a god. Not that it's impossible. The Warriors of Light beat Chaos. Terra beat Kefka. Yuna and her guardians beat Yevon. The L'Cie killed several Fal'Cie. Luffy beat Enero, although that last one is up for debate. The point is, it is usually impossible to beat a god. Then again, Sora was a trained killer with a Keyblade. He might actually be capable of it given the right circumstances and/or a couple of years to grow up.

Sora started shooting feathers at Hades. Of course, with all the fire, they should have been burned to a crisp. Thankfully, since they were made of darkness, they made it through relatively unharmed and did hit Hades. Unfortunately, this seemed to make him angry, his fire hair turned red, his skin turned orange, and it looked like his whole body was on fire.

"You little brat!" Then Hades started sending fire all over the place at a speed that even Sora was having trouble dodging. This went on for a couple of minutes before Hades took a couple of deep breaths and smoothed his hair back. "Okay, need to cool down. Need to be cool." The utter strangeness of this statement made everyone except Sora sweatdrop. Unfortunately, Sora decided to jump on Hades and try to either claw or bite the god, which got him angry and throwing fire all over the place again until he calmed down. This repeated again and again until one of the times Hades threw Sora off him and Sora rebounded off the wall. However, one of Sora's claws apparently managed to poke a small hole in the force field surrounding them.

Not much is known about how Heartless get along except that they can move between worlds using innerspace and their own passages between worlds that normal people do not have access to. One thing interesting about them is that the only barriers that seem to give them trouble are the ones between worlds. They can break through other barriers pretty easily. This includes the one surrounding fights in the Coliseum. It's how two of the matches were able to have Heartless continually spawn in. Pureblood Heartless seem to be better at breaking through barriers. At the moment, Sora is, for all intents and purposes, a large Pureblood Heartless in the shape of a boy. This gave him some Heartless abilities, including the ability to break through most barriers. However, only Goofy noticed this.

Goofy managed to avoid some of the fire attacks and slowly made his way over to the small hole. Goofy poked at the hole a couple of times. "Hey Donald! Sora poked a hole into the wall!"

"That's not important!" Donald recast Aeroga and Curage a couple of times. "We need to find a way to keep him from getting Hades mad!"

Of course, that was going to be pretty much impossible until they got Sora to calm down and/or change back. Goofy realized this, so he poked at it a bit more and realized that poking it had torn it a bit more. Seeing that, he decided to see if he could tear it some more. That turned out to be quite easy. Within a couple of minutes of tearing and avoiding getting torched, Goofy had a very large hole that a person could easily go through. What good it was for was anyone's guess. "Hey Donald! I got a pretty big hole here!"

"How's that gonna help us?"

At that moment, Sora skittered over to the hole and looked through it. Outside the torn wall was some sort of area that looked like it was usually barred. Phil said that area normally contained monsters for people to fight. Since the Heartless had shown up, monsters hadn't really been needed so it was empty now. Sora then ran off again actually ran around the area a couple of times before running straight at Hades and knocking them out of the fighting area through the hole.

Off to the side, Phil scratched his head. "Is there an out of bounds rule?" He looked at his tablet. "Eh, it's there for a reason. You two are out of the match!"

"What?" Yeah, Sora was out, but if Hades was out that meant that Sora's team won. Fortunately, before Hades could cause any problems, Sora tackled him again and sent him flying into the barred area.

For the record, Hades is a god, but he's not an expert at fighting. He's more of the scheming type. Yuffie, who'd come out from wherever she'd been to watch the match, ran over and pulled a lever that caused the bars to fall and trap the god. Of course, he's a god so he could easily teleport away. That's what he did, but he didn't reappear outside, so everyone assumed that he wasn't coming back.

"Did we win?" asked Donald.

Goofy shrugged. "I guess so."

Meanwhile, Sora was happily eating a meat bun Yuffie had given him in an attempt to keep him from trying to eat Leon's jacket.

After the semi-disastrous match with Hades (everyone got roasted at least once) they were glad to finally get back to the normal matches. The next thing they had to deal with was 5 Shadows, 3 Darkballs, and 1 of the big Heartless with the sword. At this point the Shadows and the Darkballs were easy to deal with. They weren't anything compared to the angry god they just had to deal with. The disappearing Heartless was more of a problem, but at least Sora had figured out not to stand around when they disappeared.

The 46th match was against 2 Red Nocturnes, 2 Blue Rhapsodies, 2 Yellow Operas, 2 Wizards, and an Angel Star. The only one that wasn't easily taken care of was the Angel Star, and due to Sora attacking it constantly, it didn't get to use its more dangerous attack.

The 47th match was against a Stealth Sneak and 3 of the disappearing Heartless. Donald and Goofy were understandably nervous. Sora just tried to attack what was closest to him, which was one of the disappearing Heartless, but something unexpected happened. After Sora had been clawing at his Heartless for a few moments, he suddenly bit it, and right when he bit it, he turned back to normal.

It took a few seconds for it to sink in that he was biting a large Heartless. When it did sink in, the look on Sora's face was quite comical. He was shocked enough that the Heartless was able to throw him off and Sora wasn't able to catch himself. He quickly scrambled up and looked around frantically, summoning his Keyblade. "What the heck happened to Leon and Cloud? ! What's with these-" Sora took a quick glance at the sword wielding Heartless. "Invisibles? ! And why does my mouth taste like leather? !"

"You went completely nuts!" shouted Donald as he shot a Thundaga at one of the now named Invisibles.

"What kind of nuts? ! I didn't start killing people indiscriminately did I? !"

"You were acting like a Heartless!" said Goofy.

"They attack people indiscriminately!"

"You weren't! Just other Heartless!"

"What the heck happened? !" Sora's current freaked out status caused him to put much more into the attacks than usual. Because of this, after Sora got used to what the Invisibles were capable of, the match wasn't too much of a problem. Now they had to explain what happened. "Okay, what the heck happened? Last thing I remember is trying to activate my drive while fighting Cloud."

"You turned into a Heartless," said Goofy.

"A Heartless? !"

"You looked the same," said Donald. "It's just that you were all black."

"And you had a wing," said Goofy.

"A wing? !" Sora instantly stripped off his vest and shirt grabbing at his shoulders to make sure nothing was coming out of them. He was relieved when he found he had no unusual growths coming out of his body. "It's gone…You're sure I had a wing?"

"Yeah, it was like the one you had in Halloween Town," said Donald. Sora frowned and pressed down on his right shoulder blade.

"Eye candy!" Sora looked up and noticed Aladdin, Yuffie, Aerith, Leon, and Cid had arrived. The one who'd spoken was Yuffie. Sora looked down. He was slightly more muscular than most boys his age, but he didn't think it was to the point he'd be considered eye candy. Riku would probably be called eye candy though. Wait. Riku had in fact been called eye candy by Selphie. Sora decided his train of thought was starting to get weird and decided to focus on the group again and noticed something odd.

"What happened to your jacket?" For once, Leon was not wearing his jacket, just his T-shirt. Sora's question was answered when Leon pulled out the jacket. It looked like it had been shredded to within an inch of being clothing. Sora doubted anyone would want to wear that ever again, Leon included. "Wow, what did that?"

"You did."

Sora blanched. "Say what?"

"When you transformed, you knocked Squall out and started chewing on Cloud's hair," explained Aerith.

"Funniest thing I ever saw," snickered Cid.

"After the match, you kept chewing on his hair," continued Aerith. "Aladdin tried to lure you away with some bread."

"Did it work?"

"Well, you stopped chewing on Cloud's hair, but you jumped on Leon and started chewing on his jacket."

"I chewed on his jacket? !"

"Yeah."

"Didn't anyone try to stop me?"

"I distracted you with my meat buns a couple of times!" said Yuffie.

"…Well, this explains why my mouth tastes like leather…" Sora sighed and buried his face into his hands. "This is the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me…"

"You owe me a new jacket," demanded Leon.

"Right, right…"

"Sora, do you remember anything from when you were in that form?"

Sora paused for a moment. "I remember some really creepy laughter. It sounded familiar, but I'm not sure why."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. If I was acting as weird as you said, I don't think I want to remember what I was doing." Everyone sighed.

"Well, maybe it was a onetime thing," said Goofy. They could only hope that it was. They didn't think they could handle a repeat of that.

"One other thing…" Aladdin pulled out two charms. One was the chocobo charm from Cloud. The other looked like the charm on Leon's necklace. "We think these are Keychains."

"Where'd you get those?"

Aladdin grinned and held up the chocobo charm. "This one was hanging out of your mouth when you stopped chewing on Cloud." Sora started to blush. Aladdin held up the Leon charm. "This one fell out of one of the jackets pockets when you tried to run away from it. Leon says it wasn't there before." Sora's blush deepened.

"You gotta be kidding me…" What the heck did he do? He made a note to try and avoid accidentally using that odd form again.

"So, will you show us what they do?" asked Aladdin.

"Let me pay Leon first." Sora honestly had no idea how much a leather jacket would cost. When the Tsviets needed clothes, they were usually made by Seren and Ed. Designing clothes turned out to be one of the things that kept Seren from trying to attack people randomly so she was usually encouraged to design clothing in her spare time using requests from the other Tsviets. Sora decided to just pay 100 munny and hope that covered it. Leon didn't complain so it was probably enough.

That taken care of, Sora decided to see just what the charms would do to the Keyblade. He summoned Oblivion gave it a sort of apologizing look (He wanted to keep using this form for a bit longer.) and switched it with the chocobo charm. The form it took caught Sora off guard. The blade was long, thick and gray with some small holes and large cicular indents. The teeth were some metal somewhat wider than the rest with circular indents in it. The guard was simply brown metal going around a red handle. The chocobo charm was hinging off the end on a simple metal chain. "The buster sword?"

"It does look sort of like it," agreed Yuffie. "Is that its name?"

Sora quickly turned it over looking for the name. He couldn't help but sweatdrop when he saw the name. "It says it's called Metal Chocobo." That made both Yuffie and Cid burst out laughing. Aerith just chuckled. Leon was as stone-faced as ever.

"What's a chocobo?" asked Aladdin. "Everyone's been using that word, but I don't know what that means."

"It's a really big bird that you can ride like a horse," explained Sora.

"They have crests that look like Sora and Cloud's hair!" chimed in Yuffie.

"I do not have chocobo hair!" shouted Sora. "Have you ever seen a brown chocobo with feathers that stick out like this?"

"Calm down!"

"Hey, you guys are up!" shouted Phil. "Get over here if you don't wanna forfeit!"

"We'll check the other charm after this," said Sora as the fighting group hurried over to the arena.

This match was against a Stealth Sneak and 3 Invisibles. That was troublesome. They had to deal with a boss level heartless and 3 tougher Heartless. Sora decided they ought to take care of the Invisibles first if only because the Stealth Sneak's attacks were easier to dodge and the Invisibles were annoying. Goofy ended up having to shield Donald and Sora for most of the match. In addition, Sora had discovered something about the Metal Chocobo that could be a bit of a problem.

"This thing weighs a ton!" complained Sora.

"Hearing you say that is kind of frightening," said Aladdin.

"It must be because it's based on the buster sword. That thing weighs so much, even SOLDIERS have trouble using it." Not wanting to deal with the absurdly heavy Keyblade, Sora quickly exchanged the chocobo charm for the Leon charm. This Keyblade was lighter to Sora's relief. It was the same grey metal color as Leon's gunblade. The handle was simple, the guards seemed to be a simple geometric design that didn't connect with the end of the handle. The lion charm came off the end of the handle connected by a simple grey chain. The shaft seemed to be a simple metal bar with what looked like a black tuning fork design near the guard and a bigger version of the lion head charm on one side of the shaft to act as the teeth. "That's a bit better." Sora gave it a quick look over. "It says Lionheart."

"What a coincidence!" said Yuffie. "Squall's last name is Leonheart."

Said gunblader grunted. "That's Leon."

"Oi! You guys are up!"

"Is it just me or are our breaks getting shorter?"

That match was simple. It was just three White Mushrooms. They decided to take it easy and try to see if they could guess the charades correctly.

The match after that was against five Shadows and five Darkballs. Well, that was what it looked like initially. After killing a couple of Shadows, they respawned. Seems it was gonna be another one of those matches. They spent the next 10 minutes fighting Shadows and Darkballs.

After getting a few minutes of reprieve, they had a match with 2 Stealth Sneaks. Yes, they were powerful Heartless, but after fighting against so many of them, the group had figured out how to defend against the attacks. Really, it was more a matter of endurance to get rid of the two large Heartless.

After that match, they found themselves in another respawning match, this time against Wyverns, Wizards, and Defenders. This was a difficult match. It took 20 minutes to deal with the Heartless because they had to keep dodging all the magic attacks and get into a position to attack the Heartless.

The match after that was even worse. They had to deal with respawning Darkballs, Invisibles, Angel Stars. That match took forever to get through because they had to avoid the dangerous attacks the Invisibles and Angel Stars kept using. This was not easy with the Darkballs. They had to use Curaga a lot, and there were some very close calls. They were all glad when the match was over.

The match after that one was the last match, much to everyone's relief. The opponent looked really dangerous though.

"It looks like a walking mountain with two heads," noted Sora. The Rock Titan probably didn't hear him, but it still roared loud enough to make everything shake, which caused Sora to slap his hands over his ears in pain. After he was sure it was done with the roar, he slipped in a pair of earplugs that Aerith had given him shortly after the Gizmo Shop episode. Sora did not want to go temporarily deaf if it decided to keep roaring.

Sora decided to carry out a rather novel approach at taking on the Titan. He went over to a leg, jumped on, and started climbing up like it was a real mountain. Since this would make it rather difficult for the Rock Titan to attack them without hurting itself, Goofy and Donald jumped on and started climbing as well. Of course, the Rock Titan wasn't just letting them climb up. It just couldn't reach them when they were on the lower parts of its legs. When they got higher up, it could reach them and hit them. Sora was nimble enough to dodge this. Goofy and Donald weren't, but Donald solved this by using Aeroga shield and hitting the hands with spells before they landed. Then they reached the shoulders, which were above its heads and out of reach of its hands.

"So now what?" asked Donald.

Sora took out an earplug. "Huh?"

Donald rolled his eyes. "Now what?"

"Well, I figure it can't do anything without its heads." That was a very good point. Very few things can survive without a head. "I'm gonna go for the one on the right. Can you guys get the other one?"

"Sure thing!" said Goofy.

"I think we need to weaken it a little first," said Donald.

Remember how Sora made those gears brittle in Wonderland? Donald and Sora did the same thing with the heads. It did more damage this time though because the fire would thaw the ice into water, which got into small cracks in the rocks. Then it was refrozen, expanded, and caused the rock to split. You could actually see cracks starting to form on the angry heads. Deciding that was enough, Sora jumped down and bashed at the right head. It broke apart with one hit. That's how much damage frozen water can do to rock. Seeing that Sora's idea had worked, Goofy jumped down and smashed apart the second head. The body started toppling. Seeing that the Rock Titan was one of the many creatures that can't survive without a head, Donald quickly ran down its body when it started tilting over so that he was on the horizontal surface facing the sky when it crashed to the ground.

And that is how our boys managed to conquer the Hades Cup.

"Wow, you guys did great!" said Hercules. "Even I have trouble with some of those matches!"

"I can believe that," said Sora. "It feels like it took hours to do all of those matches!"

"It did take you guys hours!" shouted Yuffie from the sidelines.

Phil cleared his throat and took out a scroll. "In recognition of finishing the Hades Cup, you are hereby presented with this trophy recognizing your efforts." Hercules took out a blue trophy. "And as a reward for managing to defeat such trying opponents, you are hereby presented with these weapons, Save the King and Save the Queen." Hercules took out a fancy looking shield and staff. The shield was blue with a large silver heart design in the middle with a gold crown above it. On either side of the heart were three wings that were the same color as the heart. The staff was blue with a copper top with a large purple jewel set in it. The jewel was surrounded by gold shaped into a curling design. Since the two weapons looked so fancy, Sora assumed they wouldn't be very useful, but when Donald and Goofy accepted the weapons and looked them over, they realized the weapons were actually really good. "In addition, you may now partake in the Gold Match and Platinum Match if you so desire." Everyone paused.

"That's it?" asked Donald.

"What? You think that ain't good enough? Those weapons are one of a kind! If you don't like that, then you can-" Goofy handily interrupted Phil before he could get any further.

"I think Donald was talking about being heroes."

"Yeah, how can we still be Junior Heroes after all that?" said Donald.

"I don't think winning a tournament makes you a hero," pointed out Sora.

"The kid's right. If you still don't know what makes a hero, then you should just give up!"

"C'mon Phil, don't be so hard on them," said Hercules. "They haven't been at this nearly as long as us. I'm sure they'll understand eventually."

"Ah, Donald's just stubborn," said Sora. "Don't mind him. This is more than enough."

"Nice to see someone has some manners."

"So, any of you gonna try the Gold and Platinum matches?" asked Hercules. "The Gold one's hard but not impossible, but even I can't beat the Platinum Match opponent. That guy is strong!"

"We'll think about it. Give us a moment to rest."

After getting away from Phil and Herc, they met up with everyone else in front of the Coliseum.

"I'm thinking about trying those matches, just to see who could give Hercules trouble."

"What about Riku and Ansem?" asked Donald.

"Well, I figure you'll want to wait until tomorrow after the tournament." Yes, the two anthros were tired. It was obvious from the way they were standing.

"Before you decide to go back in there, you might want to take a look at these." Leon held out a sheath of papers.

"What are they?" asked Goofy.

"More reports. We found them in Hollow Bastion after you left, and Hades dropped one when you kicked him out of the ring."

"That's a lot of reports…" Sora took them and quickly skimmed the first few lines. Then he tensed and snapped his head up. "Is this for real?"

"Unfortunately."

"What's it say?" asked Aladdin. "They wouldn't tell me what it said."

"It says he was experimenting on people!" Sora was nearly ripping the papers in two he was gripping them so hard. Deciding to save the papers, Yuffie grabbed them away (presumably using some ninja arts to liberate them from the tight grip) and started reading them out loud for those who were clueless.

"'It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments:

Extract the darkness from a person's heart.

Cultivate darkness in a pure heart.

Both suppress and amplify the darkness within.

The experiments caused the test subject's heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatment produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle.

Sometime later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born of darkness…What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Cloud they be the shadows of those who lost their hearts in my experiments?'"

"'The Heartless appear in groups, and are multiplying rapidly. I've provided them both living and nonliving samples. They've responded only to the living. They seem to multiply after absorbing something from the living creatures. Their prey vanishes without a trace.

I believe the Heartless are taking hearts. They are born from those who've lost their hearts, and thrive on hearts seized from others. The hearts taken by the Heartless become Heartless themselves.

Though I lack proof, I am confident in this hypothesis. I must also study their behavioral principles. Though they lack emotions, they do seem to have some intelligence. How to communicate with them?

It's just occurred to me: Could they be the darkness in people's hearts?'"

"'A massive core of energy lay beyond the door sought by the Heartless. It may be the ultimate goal of the Heartless. But what is that energy? I have devised a hypothesis, based upon my observations of the Heartless.

The Heartless feed on other's hearts, and they yearn for that energy core. That thing beyond the door must be a heart , too—the heart of this world. There is no proof, but, having felt that immense energy, I am certain. That was the heart of the world.

The Heartless are trying to take hearts not only from all living creatures, but from the planet itself. But what do they mean to do with the heart of the world?'"

"'There is no doubt that the Heartless are deeply connected to the people's hearts. Further study may unravel both their motivations and the mysteries shrouding the heart.

As a start, I have built a device that artificially creates Heartless. By creating the conditions that spawn the Heartless naturally, I should be able to produce them artificially. This device is the culmination of all my research thus far. The machine's test run successfully created a Heartless.

This may be a step toward creating a heart from nothing. The artificially and naturally created Heartless showed nearly identical traits. But the two types remain distinct for the purpose of the experiment. So, I will mark the ones that are created artificially.'"

"'Just as people have hearts, so do worlds. The same can be said of stars in the night sky. And deep within each world lies a door to its heart. The Heartless desire those hearts. Born out of darkness in people's hearts, they seek to return to a greater heart.

Yes that's it. The Heartless come from people's hearts, as does the darkness. Is the core of the world's heart the world of the Heartless? I will pursue the answer there and become all knowing.

My path is set. I shall seek out the wielder of the Keyblade, and the princesses. My body is too frail for such a journey, but I must do this. I will cast it off and plunge into the depths of darkness.'"

"'Upon opening the door of a world's heart, the wall around that world is broken down. This is seen as a shooting star. Through this, I have been able to understand the reason why the material known as Gummi Blocks has the ability to allow travel to other worlds.

A world's wall collapses because of the appearance of the Heartless, but finding a world's door takes time. And robbing a world of its heart is a similar case.

If the door has been closed by the Keyblade, one would probably be unable to reach that world's heart again. Before the Keyblade wielder appears in this world, I must take measures to do something.

Supposing that there is a close relationship between the Princesses and the Keyblade, it seems likely that they will resonate with each other…

I have chosen a special girl. I do not know if she possesses the power of the Princesses, but there is a chance, and this is an experiment. She may lead me to the place where one holding the key is…

I shall send her to the ocean of other worlds.'"

"'I have transcended to an existence of only the heart. I should have come back as a Heartless, but there is no sign of such a transformation.

My body has surely perished. However, I am different from the other Heartless, keeping the memories of before, and I have not taken on the form of a Heartless.

It is evident that there are still many things to be studied.

In order to cross over to the dark realm, which is not this world, you must go beyond the door of Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds.

The core connected to the world's heart, the place that will take me to the world of darkness. (I will record the details in another report…)

There are still so many unknown worlds.

The Realm of the Present…The Realm of darkness. The Realm of light.

And the Realm of in-between.

In which one will I find sanctuary?'"

"'When the heart casts away the body, where does the body go?

Heart and soul are separate, and the soul remains in the body. But can we assume that the remaining body and soul perish?

Certainly when the heart changes into a Heartless, the body disappears.

Or does that apply solely to this realm? Could other beings similar to the Heartless exist in another realm? If we take that to be the case, then there must be another form of oneself elsewhere.

An existence neither of darkness nor of light. An in-between existence. Cast off by the heart, a mere shell, one who begrudges both the darkness and the light.

This mystery cannot be easily resolved. The relationship between the heart and the body is a complex one. But since we exist in this realm, our counterparts of another realm must not be existent.

Therefore I shall call them…

The non-existent ones.'" Yuffie shrugged. "So, yeah, Ansem experimented on other people and himself. And he's responsible for all the Heartless with the weird x-heart thing on them. Sucks, doesn't it?"

Sora was still in the position he'd been in when Yuffie had snatched the reports from him, except he was now twitching and his hands were now in a strangling position. Aladdin gave him a worried look. "Uh, Sora, you okay?" Sora didn't react at all. "Sora?"

"He seems really angry," noted Goofy.

"He's seriously starting to freak me out," complained Cid.

Aerith gave Sora a very worried look. "We better calm him down before he snaps and hurts someone."

Yuffie grinned. "I got an idea!" She grabbed Sora and dragged him into the vestibule. Luckily for her, Sora didn't attack her. He still looked like he was gonna strangle something though. "One Gold Match for Sora please!"

A moment later Sora was out in the arena, still in the same position with a giant humanoid thing made of ice. Phil said the match was too dangerous for the group to watch, so they were hanging out in front of the vestibule while they waited.

"That scared me," said Donald.

"It must be because Sora was experimented on as well," mused Leon. "I doubt he'll be willing to feel anything but animosity for anyone who's experimented on people."

Goofy scratched his head. "So, if Ansem experimented on people and caused all these problems, does that make him the bad guy?"

"Definitely."

"We need to talk about what we learned in these reports," said Leon. "We know that he experimented on people's hearts, but he didn't go into a lot of detail. However, there were a lot of people who went missing not too long before Hollow Bastion fell. It got so bad, that people stopped going outside unless it was absolutely necessary."

"Do you think there were any survivors?" asked Donald.

Leon shook his head. "I doubt it. They were fed to the Heartless. Anyone who survived that would have to survive without food or water for 10 years. It's just not possible."

Everyone sighed. Yes, even Cid and Leon.

"Okay, next subject. Who was the kid he tried to use to find the Keyblade?" asked Donald.

"I'm pretty sure he's talking about Kairi," said Aerith.

"What makes you say that?" asked Yuffie.

"Well, he said that the girl at the very least had powers similar to a Princess of Heart," explained Aerith. "Kairi is a Princess of Heart, and she did just appear on Destiny Islands one day. Since Sora and Riku both used the Keyblade, it would make sense for the girl to appear in their world. Also, when we talked, she mentioned that she thought she might have been born in Hollow Bastion."

"Makes sense," agreed Cid. "We'll have to see if we can find any pictures of her when we go back to the place."

"We still don't know about these non-existent ones Ansem mentioned," mused Leon. "Are they dangerous or could they be potential allies against Heartless?"

"It sounds sort of creepy," said Yuffie. "Alternate versions of us in some sort of alternate reality? What if the two different versions of a person met?"

"I thought it was only if you lost your heart," pointed out Goofy.

"That was the impression I got too," agreed Aerith. "I think these people only come into being if the person they are an alternate version of loses their heart. If that's the case, the two versions can't exist at the same time, so they can't meet each other."

"What about Sora though?" asked Aladdin. "He lost his heart and got it back after he became a Heartless."

"Sora is an odd case," agreed Leon. "When he became a Heartless he wasn't like the others. He could still think. I'm not sure if he'd have one of these alternate versions or not."

"Would we even be able to run into these guys?" asked Cid. "I know I've never seen anything like those things."

"I don't think we can do anything about these guys," said Goofy.

Leon nodded. "You're right. Besides, we have more pressing things to worry about right now. We don't have time to worry about people even Ansem considers non-existent."

And that was when something odd happened. Something rushed past them. Everyone immediately twisted to see what it was. It turned out it was the ice giant Sora had been fighting, only now it was only a few inches tall. Then a fireball went sailing past them and hit it, melting it. Everyone turned back towards the vestibule and saw Sora holding his Keyblade in a casting position.

"Feel better now?" asked Aladdin. Sora nodded.

"Yeah, I do."

Everyone then went back into the vestibule and got the prize from Phil: A snowflake charm with a gold chain. "Is it a Keychain?" asked Sora.

Phil shrugged. "How should I know?"

Sora switched the charm with the Lionheart charm to see if anything would happen. It did change form. Now if seemed to be made of ice with a dark blue handle and hand guards. The blue became lighter as it went up the shaft and the teeth part was a snowflake that extended out of the shaft that was partly gold.

"Holy Shiva!" shouted Yuffie. Sora glanced up and noticed everyone was staring behind him in shock. Sora quickly turned…and found himself staring at a pair of blue breasts. It wasn't his fault. It just happened to be at his eye level. Sora quickly looked up. He found himself lookin at an amused woman with blue skin with a bit of frost forming on it, blue eyes, and blue hair that was in several braids with rings on the end. She was also wearing a blue robe, but it wasn't doing much to cover her up.

"Shiva? !" Seems Yuffie's outburst was quite accurate. "How'd she get here? ! She's a summon? !" Shiva promptly grabbed the hand holding the Keyblade, held it up, and pointed to the inside of a hand guard. _"Diamond Dust? Isn't that the name of Shiva's attack?"_ "Uh, it's the Keyblade?" Shiva nodded and let go of his hand. "I didn't know Keyblades could summon like that…" He closed his eyes to see if anything felt odd. There was a drain on his mana reserves, but it was very small. Still he wasn't sure it would be a good idea to use this Keyblade in a situation that could take a while. "Nice to meet you, I guess." Shiva responded by ruffling his hair.

"Nice prize," noted Phil. Shiva snapped her fingers and froze him solid.

After allowing Phil to thaw and convincing Shiva that Phil was harmless, Sora remembered something. "Hey, wasn't there a Platinum Match?"

Phil sneezed. Getting frozen had apparently given him a cold. "Yeah, but you can't take her in there with you." Shiva just smirked from where she was sitting. Sora turned to her.

"Hey, I'm gonna use a different Keyblade. Do you mind?" She shook her head. Sora switched out the Diamond Dust charm for the Oblivion one and Shiva immediately disappeared. "Okay, I'm ready!"

A few moments later, Sora was out in the coliseum waiting for his opponent to arrive. The others were watching in the stands.

"Hey, who is the guy Sora's fighting anyway?" asked Yuffie. "I don't think I've ever seen him before."

"Neither have I," said Leon. "Looks like we're about to find out though."

Aerith suddenly noticed someone running over to them. "Cloud?" That got everyone's attention. They turned to see the blond SOLDIER running over to them with a panicked look on his face.

"Sora's fighting the Platinum Match? !"

"Yes…"

"You gotta get him out of there!"

"Why? Not like the kid can't take care of himself," said Cid.

"You don't understand! It's against-" Cloud was cut off by an elaborate design appearing in the air above the arena. A beam of light shot out of it, impacting the arena and causing a strong burst of light. When it cleared, a man with long silver hair and a black wing coming out of his right shoulder was standing there. "Sephiroth."

Sephiroth and Sora both seemed surprised.

"Sora."

"You!"

"It's been a while…" Sephiroth looked the Keyblade wielder over. "You've grown." Sora let out a war cry and tried to slash at the older man. He froze before he could take more than a couple of steps. "Behave." To everyone's shock, Sora stood up straight, although he still had the Keyblade in his hand.

"What the fuck's going on here? !" shouted Cid.

That shout got Sephiroth's attention. He glanced up and smirked when he saw Cloud. Then he calmly walked over to Sora and put his hand on the Brunette's head. "Sora is my son."

The audience was shocked by that. Yuffie was surprisingly the first to snap out of it. "How does that even work? ! You two don't look anything alike."

Sephiroth nodded. "Well, he was adopted. However, with the amount of S and J cells in his body now he might as well be related by blood." Sephiroth smirked. "Perhaps I should take him with me."

That spurred everyone into action. All the fighters jumped down to the arena as Phil lowered the force field. After the episode where Sora started stabbing himself, Phil saw about getting that problem fixed. Cloud and Leon teamed up to get Sephiroth away from Sora while the others pulled Sora away. Yuffie frowned as she looked Sora over. "Sora's really tense." She put her fingers to his neck for a moment. "His pulse is racing. I think he's conscious and aware. He just can't move because of whatever Sephiroth did to him."

"How do we snap him out of it?" asked Aladdin.

"I don't know! Aerith's the healing expert!" They looked up to see Aerith was coming down, but she couldn't come down as quickly as the others since she was not as strong as them and was wearing a dress.

Meanwhile, Cloud and Squall were still fighting Sephiroth. Cloud didn't seem to be too far away from Sephiroth's level. Squall was having more trouble and was mainly serving as a distraction. Sephiroth frowned when he noticed that Aerith was heading over to Sora. Sephiroth hadn't been aware of many things when he'd gone to Nibelheim, but he'd become aware of things since then. He knew Aerith was an Ancient and might be able to do something to his control over Sora. He couldn't have that. He made a feint to make it seem like he was going to do an Octaslash on Cloud. Instead, when Cloud blocked, Sephiroth sliced at the air, sending a vacuum blade towards Aerith.

"Aerith!"

Said girl's head snapped up when she heard her name, and her eyes widened when she saw the blade heading for her. She braced for impact. Fortunately, she was close enough to Sora that Goofy was able to run over and block the worst of it with his shield. He turned to check on Aerith. "You okay?"

"Yes, let's hurry!" They ran over to Sora while Sephiroth made a displeased sound at his failure to kill Aerith.

"What the heck's wrong with him? !" shouted Donald.

"Aerith, I'm pretty sure he's paralyzed," explained Yuffie. "Can you do something for him?"

"I'll try. I'm not sure if it will work though. I've never used it for something like this." Aerith put her hands on Sora and started concentrating as a green light started spreading out of them. Sora's body immediately started smoking. Sora screamed in pain. Aerith immediately retracted her hands. Sora was moving now, but he was now coughing up blood violently. Donald and Aerith immediately started spamming Curagas until he stopped coughing and started breathing more normally. He seemed to be slightly out of it though if his half-lidded gaze meant anything.

"Is he okay?" asked Aladdin.

"I think so."

"Why did it have that sort of effect?" asked Yuffie. "It's pure white magic. It shouldn't be able to hurt anyone at all!"

Aerith frowned. "It's supposed to remove anything that might be affecting the body, be it magic or poison. I don't know why it would have that sort of effect on him." Then Yuffie knocked Aerith to the side just in time to keep her from being decapitated by Masamune. Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin had to jump away to avoid getting killed by the angry swordsman. Sephiroth gave Sora a quick look. He wasn't reacting to Sephiroth's close proximity so he was probably unconscious. He went to pick him up, but had to jump back when Hercules suddenly ran in and swiped at him. Even Sephiroth could get hurt pretty badly by one of Hercules's punches.

"What's going on here?" shouted Hercules.

"Sephiroth is trying to kidnap Sora!" explained Cloud. "Get him out of here!"

"Right!" It was too difficult and dangerous for Hercules to try and get close to Sephiroth. It would be best for him to get Sora out of there. He turned to the others. "You guys better come too! He'll probably try to hurt you if you stay!"

"No kidding!" They all followed after Hercules, leaving Cloud and Squall to deal with Sephiroth. He was getting annoyed.

"You ignorant traitors. Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

"What do you want with Sora?" demanded Squall. Sephiroth smirked.

"He's family. Isn't that enough?" Squall gave him a disbelieving look.

"You tried to kidnap him because you're family? But you're not even related!"

Cloud shuddered. "Actually, considering what Sephiroth's like, that's a valid reason."

Sephiroth smirked. "You know me so well, Cloud." Then he looked up with a frown. "You moved him off of this world?" Well, it made sense. They had to do something to get Sora away from the crazed general. "No matter, it will be much easier to find him from now on." Then he got an evil grin on her face as he looked at the other two swordsmen. "I might as well have fun with you two though."

Meanwhile, the other group were in Cid's gummi ship (It looked a lot more high-tech than Donald and Goofy's.) trying to get Sora to wake up. He was generally being unresponsive to anything they did, be it healing magic or slapping him in the face. Right now, Yuffie was slipping ice cubes into his shirt.

"Nothing. That usually works."

"That's it. We're going back to Traverse Town," announced Cid.

"What about Cloud and Leon?" asked Aladdin. "And our gummi ship?"

"I'll radio Chip and Dale and explain things to them. Cloud and Leon can take your ship back when they get out of there."

Yuffie sighed. "If they get out of there."

"I'm sure they'll be fine," said Aerith. "Cloud's fought Sephiroth before. I'm sure of it. He should be able to take care of himself and Leon."

"Do you think Sora's gonna be okay?" asked Goofy.

Donald waved off Goofy's concern. "Ah, if he can survive getting turned into a Heartless, he can survive anything." He still had a worried look on his face though.

"Let's just hope that Merlin can help him."

Shortly after, they were disembarking in Merlin's house. Kairi's eyes widened when she saw Sora. "Sora!" She ran over. "What happened to him?"

"Kid's got a psycho for a dad," said Cid. "Anywhere I can put him?"

"We better go upstairs." Upstairs there was a bed in the middle of the room. Cid carefully put Sora on the bed and Merlin started looking him over.

"Is he okay?" asked Kairi.

"It looks like something damaged his body pretty badly, but that's been repaired. Physically, it looks like nothing is wrong with him. Mentally though…" Merlin trailed off before turning to Kairi. "I think this is something for you to take care of."

Kairi blinked. "Me? What do you mean?"

"You two should have some sort of connection since your heart was contained in his body for a period of time. Whatever is keeping him from waking up is likely to be all in his mind. Someone close to him would likely be the most likely to snap him out of this."

"Erm, okay." Kairi nervously reached down and held one of Sora's hands. "Sora? It's me Kairi. Are you okay?" No response. Kairi chewed her lip nervously. "I'm not sure what to do. What happened to him exactly?"

"Well, there's this guy called Sephiroth," explained Yuffie. "He was a match in the Coliseum, but Phil didn't bother to say it was against him! He just called it the Platinum Match!"

"Who's Sephiroth?" The name sounded familiar to her, but Kairi couldn't remember where she'd heard it before.

"Sephiroth was the general of the SOLDIERS division in Shinra," explained Aerith. "And…he's also Sora's father."

Kairi's eyes widened. "Sora's father? !" The man he'd referred to as his 'evil dad?' "His father did this? !" This was confirmed with several nods. Kairi turned her head back towards Sora. Was it the same man that had been in Sora's head before? Maybe they had some sort of mental connection as well. Kairi moved her hands over his heart and closed her eyes. _"Sora, if you can hear me, please let me help you. I don't care what happened to you or what you did, I want to help you."_

When Kairi opened her eyes, she was somewhere else entirely. She was standing on a metal walkway over a glowing green pit of some sort. There was a large glass cylinder on one end that had what looked like a blue woman with odd body parts in it. Kairi shuddered and moved away, looking around the area some more. The place was made completely of metal with pipes all over the place. There was a door on the other side of the walkway and there was more of a walkway going around the perimeter of the room. Sitting on this circular walkway was Sora. "Sora!" Kairi quickly ran over to the Tsviet and knelt next to him. "Sora! Are you okay?"

Sora didn't respond. His knees were drawn up to his chest, his hands were holding his head, and his eyes were downcast. He looked terrified. This scared Kairi. She couldn't recall Sora ever being so terrified by anything before. It just made him seem so…vulnerable. She didn't recall him ever being vulnerable before. This was a very scary situation. Kairi honestly didn't know what to do about it. After thinking for a moment, she put a hand on his shoulder. He didn't react negatively to it so she enveloped him in a hug. He tensed but relaxed after a moment. "Do you want to talk about it?" Sora didn't move at all.

Since Kairi couldn't get anything out of Sora, she decided to talk to him instead. She talked about the worlds she had seen through his eyes. She talked about the things she'd learned since being left in Traverse Town. She talked about all the things they'd do once they got back to Destiny Islands.

"I wonder if we'll make another raft. We've already been to so many other worlds. Would either of you want to see any more worlds?" Kairi thought a moment. "I don't think I'd mind, but I think I'd prefer to stay on the islands." She chuckled. "Maybe I'll try visiting your family again." She paused. "I mean the Tsviets, not the guy who did…this to you." To her surprise, she thought she heard Sora say something. "Sora? Did you say something?"

"I hate him!" Kairi jumped. "It's not enough that he ruined my life! Now he can control my body!" Kairi blinked. That's what happened. "Why was he even there? ! He's supposed to be dead! Everyone would've been better off that way! This is all his fault!"

"…Would you like to talk about it?"

Sora immediately clammed up. "The Tsviets know about it. There's no reason to talk about it."

"Sora, I don't know much about the Tsviets, but I know you were in some sort of military. Did you actually tell them about it or did they find out about it from someone else?" Sora's silence was answer enough. "You should try talking about it. Get it off your chest."

"…"

"I promise I won't think any differently of you."

Sora took a deep breath. "I was adopted when I was two."

Kairi blinked. "So this guy isn't really your dad?" Sora nodded. "That's good, right?"

"I dunno. He just found me in Wutai during a war. No one ever figured out who my biological parents are. For all I know, they abandoned me."

"They'd never do that!"

"How would you know? You don't know them either."

Okay, maybe this was going to be a bit more difficult than she thought. "Well, what about Sephiroth? Was he a bad father?"

Sora shrugged. "He was okay, up until he went insane. He gave me everything I needed. He gave me most of the things I wanted too. He didn't give me everything though 'cause he didn't want to spoil me…"

"He sounds like a good father."

"He was. He just…snapped."

Kairi hummed. "Do you know what happened?"

Sora paused. He wasn't sure he wanted to talk about that. Then again…this was Kairi. "I'm not sure what happened exactly. I was only six."

"First, you need to know that I'd been living in a city called Midgar since Sephiroth adopted me. He occasionally left to take care of things in other places, but he always left me with someone he knew."

"He decided I needed to get out of the city so he took me with him on a job. It was supposed to be simple. There was some sort of problem with the reactor, and he was going to see what the problem was. If he could fix it, he would. If not, he'd call for the appropriate workers while culling the monster population for them." Sora sighed. "I don't know what happened, but when he came back from the reactor, he went straight to this old mansion and stayed there for a week. The guys who came with us were worried. Even I was worried, and I was just a little kid!"

"He came back eventually, right?"

Sora laughed. "He came back all right! He set the entire town on fire and killed anyone he came across!" Kairi gasped. "Given, I didn't find out about that 'till later. When he ran into me, he cast Sleep on me and started lugging me around for some reason."

Kairi frowned in confusion. "So he didn't do anything to you? That's good right?"

"No! It's not good at all! He took me to the reactor and stabbed me in the chest when I woke up!"

"Oh…" Kairi though back to the times she'd seen Sora without his shirt. He did have some scars. She wondered if one of them was from that, but figured Sora wouldn't appreciate being asked. "How bad was it?"

"It nearly killed me! I don't know how it didn't! I was in a coma for a month because of it!" Sora's expression was getting darker as he continued on. "And because of the cover up, all of the people who did manage to survive were shipped away to become experiments! Including me!"

Kairi's mouth fell open. Human experiments? But he'd been with the Tsviets, hadn't he? "Wouldn't the Tsviets have helped you?"

"They were being experimented on or imprisoned or both. And it was DEEPGROUND. It was survival of the fittest. They put everything into their own survival. No one cared about some kid!"

"But the Tsviets-"

"Were the elite. They cared less about others than anyone else. They found the situation amusing when they heard about it."

"Even Kimihiro?"

"He had been locked in a cell for a couple of years at that point." Because he was too destructive when he actually let loose, and the Restrictor was worried he'd somehow break loose.

"Wouldn't they want to help other Tsviets though?"

"You aren't just given that title. You have to earn it."

Kairi suddenly felt her heart drop. "What do you mean?"

"In DEEPGROUND, everyone starts at the bottom rung and work their way up in special combat simulations. The environment is simulated, but all the opponents are real and are fellow DEEPGROUND soldiers. The longer you survive and the more you kill the quicker you rise through the ranks. If you're particularly talented and have a useful ability you become a Tsviet."

Kairi suddenly felt sick. "You mean…you killed people when you were just a kid?"

"I hated it! I hated the Restrictor who made me fight! I hated Hojo and the scientists for using me like a guinea pig! I hated the soldiers for underestimating me! I hated ShinRa for allowing all of it! And I hated Sephiroth for leaving me to be experimented on!"

"Sora…" Kairi's thoughts were racing a mile a minute. Sora had been killing people when he was just a little kid. Sure, she'd known about the slaughtered pirate crew, but still…

"I was glad when Weiss killed the Restrictor! I was glad when we slaughtered the scientists! I was glad when the Heartless destroyed my world because it let me escape from DEEPGROUND! And I was glad that Sephiroth was killed in Nibelheim!"

Kairi blinked in confusion. "Wait. I thought he was the one who knocked you out?"

"He was! He's still alive! And he acted like nothing was wrong! Like everything was normal! And as if that wasn't bad enough, the guy can control me because of the S cells!"

"Control you?"

"I wanted to hurt him so much, but when I tried to attack him, he made my body freeze up! I was aware of everything but I couldn't do anything! It was so humiliating! And I'm sure he knew how I felt! I couldn't do anything! I had to be rescued by everyone else!"

Sora seemed to have gotten something out of his system and stopped to take some deep breaths. Kairi meanwhile was going over all of these things in her mind. She'd always wondered why Sora had no problems living with such violent people. It hadn't made any sense to her. Puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place though.

Sora's father had tried to kill him. That was a terrible betrayal. How do you recover from something like that? Could you recover from something like that? Sora did trust some people, but only a few people outside of the Tsviets. Still, that meant he'd recovered somewhat from this, right?

The Tsviets were violent, but they'd never shown any signs of killing Sora that Kairi knew of. Sure they could be violent, but they were violent with everyone, including themselves. And really, several of them seemed to be at least somewhat protective of Sora. Actually, most of them already seemed crazy. Maybe that was why Sora was comfortable around them. If they were already crazy, he didn't have to worry about them suddenly snapping on him.

And it looked like Kairi had been completely wrong about the Tsviets. She'd always considered them a bunch of psychos who'd somehow ended up with a kid. However, she'd just found out that they had all been experiments. Sora had said he was six when these things happened, and she'd been told he'd ended up on the islands when he was seven. That was a year of being experimented on. Only a year and Sora had been changed and traumatized badly. His behavior was different from normal people. Not bad enough to alienate him from other people, but enough to be considered odd. And then there were the mental scars. Kairi had felt the fear in his heart when he'd heard about the mad scientist in Halloween Town. If the other Tsviets had been experimented on for even longer than Sora, then how could they have stayed sane? How could Sora have stayed as sane as he was after a year of experimentation and torture?

Maybe this was another reason the Tsviets tended to stick together. Kairi couldn't imagine what it must have been like. She had an idea, but how could she say she understood?

Who better to understand an experiment than another experiment?

Kairi suddenly let out a sob. Sora gave Kairi a surprised look as she continued to cry. "Why are you crying?"

"It's just…just so cruel. That all of you had to go through those things!" Kairi let out another loud sob as tears started rapidly coming from her eyes. Sora looked at her nervously. He didn't know how to deal with crying girls.

"Uh, it's not worth crying over…"

"Yes it is! It should have never happened!" Well, he can't argue with that. He's always wishing it never happened. "You just refuse to cry about it!"

"Well, it's not like that's gonna change anything." Sora had come to that conclusion within a week of waking up in DEEPGROUND.

"It can make you feel better though."

Sora didn't seem convinced. "I don't know…"

Kairi gave him a sad smile. "You don't want to look weak, do you?" Because if you're in a place where people are killed every day, then you can't afford to look weak in any way. "Tell you what. I'll cry for you whenever you're sad from now on."

"But I don't want you to cry because of me…"

Kairi shook her head. "It's okay. I want to help you however I can." Then Kairi put her head on Sora's shoulder.

Sora looked at her nervously for a moment before putting an arm around her waist. Kairi didn't respond negatively to it, so he relaxed a bit. _"How will crying help me? I don't get it."_ Then Sora felt something wet on his face. With a huff, Sora wiped his tears away and laid his head on Kairi's.

**Chapter end**

I had far too much fun with Anti-Sora. Did you find it as amusing as I did? I certainly hope so.

The encounter with Sephiroth wasn't anything like I planned it to be. That and everything after it was thought up pretty much on the spot.

I am working on applying to medical school, so updates might be a bit sporadic for a while. I will keep working on them though.

**Omake: Aftermath**

"I can't believe his dad is Sephiroth and he didn't tell us!" complained Yuffie. After the shock of recent events had worn off, Yuffie had been pissed off by this information.

"Why's that a problem?" asked Aladdin.

"He was the general of an army that invaded Yuffie's home country," explained Aerith. "He was responsible for many deaths and the eventual takeover of her country."

"Guy's a complete asshole," muttered Yuffie.

"You're gonna have to get over it," said Cid. "Besides, I think the kid hates him more than you do." Yuffie just crossed her arms with a huff.

"Who do you think his real parents are?" asked Goofy.

"Oh, right, Sephiroth said he was adopted," said Aerith. "I guess that's a good thing all things considered."

"Sora's unlucky," noted Donald. Everyone gave him an odd look. "What? It's true."

"Now that you mention it…" They paused when they heard a crash from down below. A moment later Leon and Cloud came up from below.

"Wow, you two look like shit," said Cid. It was true. Their clothes were in tatters and covered in blood. There were also some cuts on the visible parts of their bodies. Leon was twitching badly and part of one of Cloud's spikes was missing.

"You guys are both gonna need completely new wardrobes," said Yuffie. "Fortunately, I should have some clothes that fit you back at the hotel."

"Whatever." Leon staggered over to another bed that Merlin had set up and collapsed on it. Cloud didn't seem to be as bad off and took a moment to check on Sora. At some point, Kairi had climbed into bed and now the two were curled up next to each other. Aerith had found it so cute that she'd found a camera and snapped a picture.

"Is Sora okay?"

"They were both crying in their sleep for a bit, but they seem fine now," said Aerith. "I think they'll be okay."

Cloud closed his eyes. "I'm glad. I didn't realize…" He sighed. "I can't believe I forgot Sora was his son."

Donald gave him an accusatory look. "You knew?"

"Yeah…Even if I hadn't, I should have warned him about Sephiroth."

Aerith gave him a sympathetic look. "It wasn't your fault." Cloud just turned, walked away to the elevator, and left. She sighed. "That guy…"

"Well, Sora will wake up soon," said Aladdin. "We should probably stay away from the subject of his dad." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Let's see if Merlin can summon some more beds," suggested Donald. "I don't think we'll be leaving today."


	21. Chapter 21

And I finally have the final chapter up! I know there was a long hiatu you guys had to deal with, but I had writer's block when it came to this story and a senior project to work on. On a side note, I am now a college graduate. I finished this in the lots of spare time I have while looking for a job or something.

I wanted to get this done before I leave on vacation, so if I made any grammatical mistakes…Just tell me in a review and I'll make the correction. Hopefully, the fight scenes will be all right though…

I still own nothing. Let's get this show on the road!

**Chapter Start!**

Sora blinked as he started to wake up. His body felt kind of sore, but he also felt…lighter. It felt…kind of nice. He stretched a bit and realized that there was something restricting his movement. He looked down cautiously and blinked. Kairi was curled up next to him with her arms wrapped around him. That was odd. Then Sora remembered the events leading up to his waking up and it made a lot more sense. He glanced down at Kairi nervously. She looked peaceful. Considering all the stuff that had been happening lately, it would be a shame to wake her up.

"Sora!" Sora jerked his head up. It was just Aerith though. She looked relieved. "We were worried about you!" She came over and somehow started looking him over without waking up Kairi. "Well, you look okay, except for your hair."

Sora made a face. "My hair?" His free hand went up to it. It felt normal.

"I'll find a mirror." Aerith turned to one of Merlin's various pieces of furniture and started looking through it. For such a powerful wizard, Merlin was pretty unorganized. "What happened back in the Coliseum? You tried to attack Sephiroth and just froze…"

Sora winced. "I…have some of his cells in my body. I guess it gives him some sort of control over me." Sora did not like admitting that, but he had to admit it was something he needed to tell others. He didn't relish sharing this news with the other Tsviets though.

Aerith frowned. "His cells? Leon thought it might be because Sephiroth is your father."

"That has nothing to do with it!"

Kairi jerked awake with a shout. "What? !"

"Good morning Kairi," said Aerith. "Do you know where Merlin keeps his mirrors?"

Kairi realized where she was, blushed, and quickly got out of the bed. "N-No. Why?"

"I want to show Sora what he looks like."

Kairi looked at Sora in confusion before her eyes widened. "Your hair!"

Sora nervously fisted his hair. "Did he do something weird to it when he controlled me?"

"Nothing too different," said Aerith, finally pulling out a tarnished mirror and handing it to Sora. "I think most people won't even notice."

Sora quickly grabbed the mirror and looked himself over. To his immense relief, his appearance was more or less the same. His hair was just a few shades lighter. Kairi grabbed a lock of his hair. "Hey, it was this color when you were younger."

Sora blinked. "It was?"

"Yeah. You can look at your old pictures to see if you want to. It was already getting darker when I arrived at the islands though."

That was news to him. Maybe Selphie had a point and he should pay more attention to his appearance after all…

"It's strange though…"

Sora looked up from his reflection at Aerith. "What's strange?"

"I'd have thought Great Gospel would have removed those cells."

Sora gave her an odd look. "Great what?"

"Great Gospel. It's one of my limit breaks," explained Aerith. "My limit breaks all have to do with healing and support magic. Great Gospel is my strongest healing limit. It should have healed your injuries and removed anything foreign to your body, but instead it made you cough up blood."

Sora thought about where he'd been stabbed when Sephiroth went crazy and shrugged. He'd had all sorts of things done to him in DEEPGROUND. There could be any number of reasons Aerith's limit didn't work the way it should have.

For all he knew, Aerith's limit had mistaken him for a zombie.

"Where's everyone else?" asked Sora. He didn't really see a point in talking about his body's oddities. It wasn't like they could do anything about it.

"Leon was sleeping for a while before he and Cloud left with Yuffie to get some clothes," explained Aerith. She paused. "I don't think you should go talk to them. Yuffie's pretty angry about your father."

Sora winced. "I was afraid of that."

"Merlin's just downstairs. Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin left to go get some supplies. They figured you'd want to leave as soon as you woke up."

"I see…" Sora glanced at Kairi. "Guess we'll leave after we've eaten."

"You're leaving without saying good-bye?" asked Kairi.

"Yuffie's angry at me so I think I should let her calm down. Leon and Cloud will understand. I don't think Cid will care either way."

"The others have already eaten," said Aerith. "You two slept pretty late. There's still some food if you two are hungry."

"Okay," said Kairi. "Sora, do you want to join us?"

"One second." Sora quickly looked himself over to make sure there was nothing else besides his hair that had been altered. The only thing he found was a black wing charm on the chain wrapped around his arm. He scowled at the charm before tossing it out the open window. "Okay, ready."

Merlin was happy to see Sora was awake and did a couple of quick spells to make sure he wasn't going to pass out or go catatonic within the next couple of days. Breakfast consisted of some oatmeal with honey and fruit for flavoring. This was good enough for Sora.

"What are you gonna do when you get to where Ansem is?" asked Kairi.

Sora shrugged. "It depends on the environment and the type of Heartless running around. I'll have to save my limit for as long as possible." Not for the first time, Sora cursed the fact he could only use his drives once a day. "I guess I can try using Shiva if things get tough."

"Shiva?"

"Oh, right. I got a new Keyblade at the Coliseum right before…my accident. It's got an ice element to it and it actually summons something as long as it's equipped and I have magic. It's a drain on my magic though, so it would be a bit difficult to use without some practice."

"It summons Shiva?" Sora nodded. "What's Shiva?"

"A woman with blue hair and skin and ice powers." Sora didn't think Kairi would like to hear about Shiva's clothes, or lack thereof.

"That's good. You guys could use some more help." Kairi stirred her oatmeal. She wasn't eating much. Sora was a bit worried about her.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm worried about Riku."

Sora sighed. "Yeah…I'm still pissed at him for listening to Maleficent and everything…but I miss him too."

"You won't kill him then?"

"I don't want to, but…" If Ansem was using Riku's body, then how could he kill Ansem without killing Riku? "How do I save Riku and kill Ansem? Is that even possible?"

"Riku will be all right." Sora gave Kairi a surprised look. Kairi had said that in a determined voice, and her expression was equally determined. "You'll beat Ansem, you'll save Riku, and we'll all go back to the islands."

Sora smiled. "Yeah…" A happy ending…It's usually not what you get, but still…Sora had to hope it would turn out as well as Kairi was hoping.

Hey, with how crappy his life had been, he had to have something work out eventually, right?

"Careful with those!"

Sora looked out the window. "Was that Donald?"

"Huh?"

"I'm sure I heard Donald just now."

"Look out!"

Sora got up. "Now I heard Goofy."

"I think I heard it this time," agreed Kairi. "What are they saying?"

"Something about being careful…"

Then the two anthros stumbled into the house with a large bag. Aladdin was right behind them with several smaller bags. "Sora!"

The two anthros looked up. "Sora!" The two ran over to him.

"You're all right?"

"We were so worried about you!"

"What happened to you?"

"Uh, calm down." Sora quickly pried them off. "It just turns out Sephiroth had the ability to control my body. I think there was some sort of interference or something. I'm fine now. I just need to avoid him. It shouldn't be too difficult." At least, he hoped it wouldn't be. Did Sephiroth have the ability to travel to different worlds?

"That's a big deal!" argued Donald. "You can't just write that off!"

"Okay, okay, sorry! If I feel like that sort of thing again, I'll warn you guys."

"We can leave anytime you're ready," said Goofy.

"Good…" Sora stood up. "I'm ready to go."

"Sora…" Kairi hugged him. "You'll come back soon right?"

"You can count on it! The three of us will be back at the islands before you know it!"

Kairi smiled. "I'll hold you to that."

"See you soon." Then the four boys stepped into the green circle and disappeared to their gummi ship.

"Chip, Dale, any idea how we're supposed to get to this place Ansem's supposed to be?" asked Donald.

"We've detected a large energy signal close to Hollow Bastion."

"That's probably where you need to go."

"Go to Hollow Bastion. A warp vortex has appeared in the vicinity."

"That should help get you there!"

Aladdin groaned. "Not again…"

So they had to get to the warp vortex while dealing with the increased amount of Heartless ships. As before, the trip through the vortex was very unpleasant. It was like going on a topsy turvy roller coaster for 10 minutes, and it sounded like something was gnawing on the ship.

Actually, considering what the ship was made out of, that wouldn't be surprising.

Eventually, they were spat out and found themselves looking at a very strange looking world. It looked like some sort of star (the gas kind) with a swirling cloud of gas around it and some darker clouds along with a few trails of light going into it.

"What sort of world is that?" asked Aladdin. "It looks really…wrong."

"Yeah," agreed Donald. "A world shouldn't look like that…"

"What if it's an artificial world though?" asked Sora.

Donald frowned. "What're you saying?"

"Well, an artificial heart was made in Halloween Town. Maybe artificial worlds can be made too," suggested Sora. "And it feels odd. Like it's sucking in pieces of souls…or maybe hearts. I don't know. It's like it's a black hole."

"A what?" asked Aladdin.

"Uh, we'll explain later."

"Maybe it's where the hearts go after Heartless take them," suggested Goofy.

Sora thought for a moment. "Actually, that would make sense, especially if it were the hearts of worlds."

They beamed down and found themselves inside a small cave. Outside the cave was a light in the distance. However, it looked like it was mostly water with rocks occasionally breaking the surface. There didn't seem to be anything else at all.

"Gawrsh, is this all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?" asked Goofy.

"I guess," said Sora. "But those worlds will be restored when we beat Ansem."

"Yeah!" agreed Donald.

"Any idea what's gonna happen to this place and us after we beat him?" asked Aladdin.

"Uh…"

"This is a Heartless world, so maybe it'll just disappear," suggested Goofy. That got a 'huh' from everyone else. Goofy gave them an encouraging smile. "But no worries. Even if this place goes poof, our hearts ain't goin' nowhere. I'm sure we'll find our pals again." Goofy nodded to himself. "Yup, I know that we will."

Sora smiled. "Yeah, you're right." Sora removed the Oathkeeper charm from his chains and looked at it as it enlarged. "After all, I promised to return this."

With that said, they had to figure out where to go. After examining the water, it was discovered it wasn't exactly normal. It was solid enough to walk on, but after a few steps, an orb of dark energy fell on them.

Inside the orb, 3 Invisibles appeared. The four boys actually managed to deal with the Invisibles pretty quickly. Seems the matches at the Coliseum had helped out some. Given Aladdin had some trouble, but he seemed to get the hang of it after a couple of minutes. After beating them, the orb didn't disappear though.

"How do we get out of here?" muttered Donald. Just then, the orb disappeared. The boys blinked. "What just happened?"

"Do you think it's because I opened that treasure chest?" asked Aladdin. The other three looked over and saw a small empty chest at Aladdin's feet. "It had some sort of medicine in it."

"Well, let's remember it, just in case."

They continued on for a few feet before finding another small treasure chest just sitting there.

"Do you think this is safe to open?" asked Aladdin.

"One way to find out." Sora tapped the chest. It flew open with a burst of dark energy, and Darkballs and Invisibles immediately appeared. This time the orb of energy disappeared a couple of moments after all the Heartless were beaten.

The next treasure chest they came across was a normal chest, thankfully. The next one wasn't. It summoned a Behemoth. The same strategy as before was utilized, and after several minutes, it was defeated and the orb disappeared.

After walking a few feet, another orb fell on them, and several Angeal Stars appeared. After they were defeated, the orb didn't disappear until after Aladdin opened the treasure chest that had also been engulfed by the orb.

The next chest was normal and had a Megalixir, but the one after it had another orb of darkness that contained Angel Stars and Invisibles.

The next chest was normal. The one after it had Shadows, Darkballs, and Invisibles.

The one after that was a trap as well with Darkballs, Invisibles, and Angel Stars.

They were actually able to walk a fair distance before they were engulfed by an orb that contained a Behemoth.

After they beat the Behemoth and the orb disappeared, they found themselves somewhere else entirely. It seemed to be a cave with a lot of sand and crystals. That was unexpected. They'd been planning to get to the ball of energy.

"Where are we now?" asked Aladdin.

"Dunno, do you think that Ansem feller is around here somewhere?"

Donald snorted. "Yeah, in the most dangerous place I bet!"

Sora frowned. "Aren't they always?" It made sense, but it was incredibly annoying. The caves were practically a catacomb. Fortunately, there was a very obvious hole with a light shining out of it. It was agreed to head there simply because it would be an enormous headache to try and go over the whole place. It fell onto a platform of rock with what looked like teeth around the edges with a stone roof despite the fact there were no walls. There was also a ball of green light on one side, and a ball of blue light on the other end.

"What happened to the hole?" wondered Aladdin.

"I don't think this world is going to obey the normal rules of reality," said Sora. "Now, how to advance from here…"

"How 'bout these balls?" asked Goofy. He touched the blue one and disappeared. His companions stared for a second before sighing and touching the ball as well.

It turned out to teleport them to a platform nearly identical to the one they had just been on. The main difference was that there was a pulsing column of purple light in the middle that Goofy was looking over. Goofy was examining that column and looked up when the others appeared. "Hello!"

"What's that?" asked Aladdin.

"Is it some sort of portal to Traverse Town?" asked Sora.

"Portal?"

"You can see Traverse Town in it."

The other three looked. It was a column of light. There wasn't anything in it. "I don't see that," said Aladdin.

"You don't?" Sora looked at it curiously and poked it with his Keyblade. It immediately erupted and covered the area in light. When it faded, they were in the third district of Traverse Town. They looked around in surprise.

"Whoa…"

"Are we actually back in Traverse Town?" asked Aladdin.

"Uh, I don't think so," said Donald. There was a raised portion of ground preventing them from leaving the plaza. Then several Soldiers appeared. When those were defeated, Large Bodies appeared. Then Large Bodies and Soldiers appeared together. When those were defeated, all that was left was a treasure chest that Aladdin immediately opened.

"Are we gonna end up back in that place?" asked Goofy.

"Well, if it was like those orbs from before, we'd be back by now," pointed out Sora.

Donald huffed. "Let's just go through the doors." The big doors that led to the First District were there and completely unblocked.

"Better be careful," cautioned Aladdin. "It might be booby-trapped." He walked over and checked it out. After a few moments, he nodded. "It looks safe." He cautiously pushed one open, and everyone was immediately blinded by a burst of light. When it faded, they were back on the platform from before. "Okay…"

"Now what?" muttered Donald.

"Hey, that wasn't there before." Goofy walked over to another blue ball of light and touched it. The other three quickly touched it as well. It took them to a platform that was identical to the last one.

"You mean we have to do that again?" asked Donald.

"Well, I don't see a second orb," said Aladdin. "I wonder how many of these there are."

"One for each world," said Sora.

"How many would that be?"

Sora took a moment to count in his head. "Nine, ten if you count Monstro."

There was an awkward silence. "At least we know what to expect," pointed out Aladdin.

Considering they didn't get the chance to say that very often, that actually was a pro.

"I wonder if the order is the same..." Sora poked the column of light. Like the last one, it exploded outward and when it faded, they were looking at a familiar landscape.

This time, it was the odd hallway in Wonderland, and there were some Red Rhapsodies and a Green Serenade already present. After those had been dealt with, a single Wizard appeared. When that one was defeated, another Wizard appeared along with two Blue Requiems and two Green Serenades. Then two Green Serenades and two Yellow Operas. That was the end of the Heartless.

The only way out was through the shrinking set of doors, and that brought them back to the platform with the column of light in the center.

Donald made a displeased noise. "We're gonna have to keep doing that?"

"At least it's not hard," pointed out Goofy.

Sora crossed his arms. "It looks like the order of the worlds we are transported to is the same as the order we discovered them."

"What was the order of the ones you found before Agrabah?" asked Aladdin.

"Traverse Town, Wonderland, Deep Jungle, and the Coliseum."

Aladdin thought for a second. "Deep Jungle was that world with all the trees and the stuffy air and the guy in the loincloth, right?" The others nodded. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

The column on the next platform didn't go to Deep Jungle. It went to the Coliseum. They didn't talk about it until after they got rid of all the Heartless.

"I guess they're not in order after all," said Sora looking between the two possible exits.

"It's not much of a problem," said Aladdin. "We're familiar with all the Heartless and terrain that might show up. And if this works the way we think it does, we only end up in each type of terrain once. If that's the case, we can eliminate any of the places we've already been."

The three stared at him in surprise. "What? You learn to notice these things when you live on the streets." Well, that did make sense.

"I think we should use this door," said Sora, pointing at the big double doors. "I can't pick up anything from the other door."

That was the right choice. It took them right back to the platform.

The next platform transported them to the bamboo grove in Deep Jungle. They left through the path that usually led to the camp.

The next platform took them to Agrabah's marketplace. After they took care of the Heartless, Aladdin started looking around at everything.

"Aladdin? You okay?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah, it's just…" Aladdin trailed off as he tried to put his feelings into words. "I don't know if I'll ever see this place again, so I want to be able to remember it as best as I can."

That silenced them. What Aladdin said was true. They didn't know if they'd be returning to their homes. Sora thought back to where he lived. Destiny Islands had been an okay place to live, but he'd never really cared where he lived. He'd rather focus on remembering the people who'd been there.

Then again, was there really anyone worth remembering in Agrabah for Aladdin besides Jasmine, Genie, and Abu? He didn't even have any family figures.

They left through the open gate of Agrabah's wall.

The next platform went to a cave in Atlantica with a strong upward current. They thankfully had transformed into their mer-forms. After taking out the Heartless, they left through an opening that had a trident painted on the side.

The next platform transported them to Oogie boogie's roulette wheel and transformed them into their monster forms. After they took out the Heartless, they left through the door to the outside.

The next platform took them to a part of Captain Hook's ship. They managed to get out through one of the doors.

The column on the next platform was green and was flowing much more peacefully. Sora was not expecting where it took them.

"I don't recognize this place," muttered Aladdin looking around.

"Neither do I," agreed Goofy.

"This is the world inside the book," said Sora.

"Huh?"

Sora looked around. Besides, a log and some flowers, they were standing in a peaceful clearing. There was even one of those glowing circles. "This is the world in the book that I went into in Merlin's house." He continued looking around. There was no one here either. "It wasn't quite this…abandoned last time I was here though."

Donald looked around curiously. "This is what it looked like inside? It's not half bad."

"Yeah." Sora walked forward. "No Heartless ever showed up here. It's actually really-" And then they were back on the platform. "…Peaceful."

Aladdin looked around. "I guess we didn't need to do anything."

It was kind of disappointing. A break from fighting would've been welcome.

The column on the next platform appeared to be made of raging fire. Normally, they would have been a bit nervous about interacting with it, but they didn't have much of a choice so they entered.

Wherever they were, it was dark and there was a large Heartless emblem on one of the walls. There were also several Invisible to contend with. They took longer to take care.

They immediately went through a set of blue doors, expecting to be taken to the platform, but instead they opened into another room with some sort of large machine in the middle of it. None of them were sure what it was exactly.

"This looks sort of like Hollow Bastion," commented Aladdin.

"Well, I doubt we were able to explore the entire place," said Sora. He walked over to the machine and tapped a couple of keys.

'Ones born of the heart and darkness, devoid of hearts,' Sora blinked. 'Ravage all worlds and bring desolation.' Sora looked around, trying to locate the source of the voice and realized that none of the others seemed to be hearing anything.

Sora was hearing things in his head again…Joy

'Seize all hearts and consummate the great heart. All hearts to be one, one heart to encompass all.' Well, it sounded like it was talking about Heartless. He wasn't sure what the great heart was though. 'Realize the destiny: the realm of Kingdom Hearts. The great darkness sealed within the great heart. Progeny of darkness, come back to the eternal darkness. For the heart of light shall unseal the path. Seven hearts, one Keyblade, one key to the door. The door of darkness tied by two keys. The door of darkness to seal the light. None shall pass but shadows, returning to the darkness. Ones born of the heart and darkness, hunger for every heart until the dark door opens.'

Sora didn't have time to figure out what that even meant as more Invisibles appeared.

After the Invisibles were taken care of, the boys were left to figure out how to get out.

"Was that hole there before?" asked Goofy.

The others went out into the hallway to see what Goofy was talking about. On the wall opposite the Heartless emblem was what looked like a wormhole, or at least what Sora imagined a wormhole would look like.

"Well, let's just see if that works."

It led them back to the platform, but there was no new orb to take them to another platform. Instead there was a hole in the platform with what looked like ice crystals drifting up from it.

"How far down do you think this goes?" asked Goofy.

"Does anyone have a rock or anything like that?" asked Aladdin.

Sora dug out a piece of munny and tossed it into the hole. Everyone leaned forward to listen for the noise when it hit the ground.

After several moments, they still hadn't heard anything.

"Okay, what does that mean?" asked Sora.

Aladdin, shrugged, visibly confused. "That's never happened before. I guess it's either bottomless or so deep that we couldn't hear the munny when it hit the ground. I'm not sure what to do in either situation."

Donald made an annoyed noise. "That means we're stuck."

Sora frowned as he stared into the hole. It felt like something was calling him. "I know some techniques to break falls from high places. I'll check it out and give you a signal if it's safe to come down." Without further ado, Sora swung his legs over the edge and jumped down the hole.

Sora had been serious about the falling techniques, but it turned out he didn't need them, his fall quickly slowed. It seemed familiar somehow. He lowered himself, went up, went left, and went right.

It was just like Neverland. Sora lowered himself a bit before shooting a Firaga towards the hole. That would hopefully show that it was safe. Sora started looking around.

There appeared to be a bunch of creepy looking clouds swirling around in a dark vortex with Sora stuck in the center of it all. It sort of reminded Sora of the eye of a hurricane, which he had experienced several times before. There actually was a bottom…sort of.

There was what appeared to be the peak of an active volcano in the middle of the vortex. Sora figured he'd go see if there was an actual bottom when the volcano started bubbling. Sora's eyes widened and he started heading for the hole before he realized it was not a normal eruption. It had lava streams going up, and there was a dark form rising out of the volcano. As the lava fell off, Sora could make out a pair of black wings and…horns? It was so dark that it was difficult for Sora to make out the form completely, even with enhanced senses.

Then one of the wings stretched out dramatically, allowing Sora to get a glimpse of what they belonged to. Then the other wing stretched out and Sora could finally get a good look at the creature. It was a giant demon that was completely black with horns coming out of his head. The only points of color on it were its glowing yellow eyes and a couple of fangs poking out of its mouth. Despite the fact it wasn't the scariest thing he'd ever seen, he felt terrified of it.

"_It's not a Heartless. It feels too different. What is it though? Some sort of demon or something? I can feel the evil rolling off of him! I feel really strange!"_ It took a moment for Sora to realize what it was. _"I want to run away…"_

That was odd simply because it had been beaten into him to never run from a fight. You always fight, even if it killed you. The only reason no one had died since they came to Destiny Islands was because Kimihiro had threatened to use his limit on anyone who broke the rule.

Much as everyone hated to admit it, Kimihiro's limit was terrifying.

"What is that? !"

Sora didn't even need to turn around to see that the rest of the group had followed. "It's a monster, but it's not a Heartless. It's incredibly powerful." Sora squashed the suggestion to run away. They needed to go forward, and he doubted they'd be able to retreat.

Donald gave the creature a nervous look. "What's the strategy?"

"If it looks like it's going to attack, get away. And if you see an opening, attack it with all that you've got."

And then they flew forward. They had to fly back when a column of fire erupted around the monster. Donald quickly cast several Aerogas. Then they flew forward and started attacking.

What was there to say about the fight? The demon didn't move, making it easy to attack, but it had attacks that nearly killed them in one hit.

Fortunately, they did manage to beat it, whatever it was. It crashed down into the mountain, disappearing in one last blaze of fire.

"So, what was that anyway?" asked Aladdin.

Sora shrugged. "Who knows? It wasn't a Heartless though…"

"Where do we go now?" asked Donald.

"The mountain's glowing," pointed out Goofy.

The boys tensed up, expecting the monster to reappear, but it didn't. Instead, what looked like snow started coming out of the opening in the mountain. Sora caught one of the particles. It felt neither warm nor cold. "This isn't snow or crystal…" It seemed hard though before it dissolved in Sora's hand. "Maybe we need to go down there…"

"You want to go into the volcano? !"

"This isn't a world that follows the normal rules of the world. There's a good chance that there's something other than magma inside of it."

"…Fine…"

Sora was right. There wasn't any magma. Just a long shaft down with some cliffs they could jump to. At the bottom of a shaft was a doorway that led to a tunnel with random junk in it and a hole that led to another tunnel with random junk in it. At the end of the second tunnel was another doorway that dropped them into a large cavern with a glowing green floor and the Heartless crest on the opposite side of the cavern.

Then a Behemoth appeared, making the cavern significantly less open.

They'd gotten used to dealing with Behemoths so it didn't take too long to take it out.

"So, now what?" asked Aladdin. As if answering him, part of the Heartless crest cracked and fell to the ground, revealing that there was a hole behind it. Some Darkballs appeared as well.

"Keep fighting! That might damage the crest some more!"

So, they fought the Darkballs, eventually killing all of them. Once again, part of the crest broke and fell. Another group of Heartless consisting of Invisibles and Angels appeared. When this group was beaten, the last part of the crest fell and no more Heartless appeared.

Inside the hole was something very strange: It was another cavern, but the way out was a pair of ornate pink doors. Sora stared in shock. "That's…"

"What's wrong?" asked Goofy.

"I saw this the day my islands were destroyed…" And they had been in an equally strange place as well. Sora cautiously put his hand on one of the handles.

_Careful. This is the last haven you'll find here._

Sora's eyes widened. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

_Beyond there is no light to protect you. But don't be afraid. Your heart is the mightiest weapon of all. Remember, you are the one who will open the door to the light._

Sora looked around. "There was a voice just now." It sounded familiar. "It called this the last haven…"

Donald shrugged. "I didn't hear anything."

"Maybe it's a Keyblade thing," suggested Aladdin. "So, did it say anything else?"

"There is no light beyond this point. And my heart is the mightiest weapon of all. I guess it's saying that I need to believe in myself or something."

"So, it's non-stop fighting from here on out?"

"Sounds like it…Does anybody want to rest?"

Aladdin shrugged. "I'm not tired. I think it's because of the potions."

Donald nodded. "They work on fatigue."

Sora took a deep breath. "Then let's go." He opened the doors, flooding the room with light.

When the light cleared, Sora was shocked yet again. "This…"

Aladdin looked around. "This place looks really nice."

"This is Destiny Islands!"

Indeed it was. To be more specific it was the island the kids played on all the time where Sora had first gained a Keyblade. It looked exactly the same as it had before that night.

"Wow, Sora your world is really beautiful," said Goofy.

Donald bopped Goofy on the back of his head. "Focus! We need to find Ansem!"

Sora looked around. "Nothing looks any different." _"Think. Where would Ansem be?"_ "The door!"

"It disappeared when we came through it," said Aladdin.

"No, there was a door back in the Secret Spot. I think it was this world's Keyhole." Sora immediately ran over to the entrance, which was back to being a hole. "I saw him in here right before the Heartless destroyed this world."

"This world has been connected."

Everyone jumped. "What was that?" asked Goofy.

"Ansem said that when I ran into him here," explained Sora. He frowned. "Part of the island just disappeared." The island where Riku was pulled into the darkness.

"Tied to the darkness…soon to be completely eclipsed." Even more of the island disappeared so that even those unfamiliar with the island noticed. "There is so very much to learn." The water turned into a sickly purple. "You understand so little." The ground started shaking. "A meaningless effort." A bright flash of light blinded them. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

As the light faded, it revealed an island that was destroyed and cracked apart. It also revealed Riku in his body suit standing at the edge of the ocean.

"Is that Riku?" asked Donald.

Aladdin's eyes widened. "Riku's alive?"

"…That's not Riku." Sora started walking towards Ansem. "…"

"Take a look at this tiny place." It was Ansem's voice from Riku's body. "To the heart seeking freedom this island is a prison surrounded by water." Ansem started raising his arms while tilting his head back. "And so this boy sought to escape from his prison. He sought a way to cross over into other worlds." He lowered his arms and head. "And he opened his heart to darkness." He turned around, transforming into Ansem as he did so. Sora growled at the heavily tanned man.

"Riku! You gonna just let this pedo do whatever he wants with your body? !"

Ansem did twitch slightly at that. "Don't bother. Your voice can no longer reach him where he is. His heart belongs again to darkness. All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end…" Ansem suddenly appeared behind the group, causing them to jump away. "Every heart returns to the darkness whence it came! You see…darkness is the heart's true essence."

"That's not true!" Sora thought of everything he'd seen not just in the short time since leaving the islands but also everything that happened through his life. "The heart may be weak. And sometimes, it may even give in. But…" He thought about the people who'd lost their home, but never gave in. The people who fought against the Heartless and their temptations. Cloud. Kairi Riku. The Tsviets. Donald. Goofy. And…Himself. "I know there's a light that never goes out!"

Ansem seemed unimpressed and started levitating with crossed arms. "So, you have come this far and still you understand nothing. Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!" Then a strange aura appeared around him along with a strange black creature that resembled a Heartless and was attached to his feet.

Donald quickly cast Aeroga on everyone as the other three rushed Ansem. He smirked and held out his hand. Several energy disks flew out of it, forcing the boys to dodge. Sora did something when he dodged that allowed him to quickly close the rest of the distance between him and Ansem. Sora slashed across his chest, opening up a long cut that darkness oozed out of.

Unfortunately, it seemed Sora only landed that blow because his altered dodge had caught Ansem by surprise. He easily dodged the blows that came after it. It appears that he forgot something important though.

Goofy and Aladdin came in from either side in an attempt to cut him off. It worked somewhat. There wasn't enough space between the two for him to dodge their attacks, and it held him long enough for Sora to land another blow. However, when Aladdin pulled out his sword, Sora noticed that the wound closed up.

"Huh?" _"Why'd it close up? His attacks have always been effective on Heartless before."_

Sora's distraction cost him dearly. "Submit!" Before Sora could react to Ansem's shout, the shadow creature appeared in front of him and took the blow, slithering up the length of the Keyblade and around Sora's body, holding him in place. Sora was barely able to move. Then Ansem punched Sora hard enough to send him flying several yards back. Sora cast a quick Curaga. _"Not as bad as getting punched by Azul actually."_

There was still the issue of the shadow wrapped around Sora. Aladdin, Donald and Goofy were keeping Ansem from getting near Sora. Sora cast a Thundaga spell on Ansem and winced as the shadow did something that sent pain through his body. Sora couldn't tell if any of the attacks were working, but at least the shadow let go of him and went back to Ansem. Sora cast another Curage to heal the gashes the shadow had left and ran forward to join the group in attacking Ansem.

The others had caught on to the fact that only the Keyblade seemed to be hurting Ansem and were mainly getting into formations that would keep him from escaping. Sora also was careful to make sure the shadow wasn't going to shield Ansem before he attacked. He needed to avoid a repeat of it attaching to him.

Ansem finally had enough and floated straight up and away towards a tree with purple cracks at the top. The group gave chase after him, but had to stop as the ground started shaking and the tree cracked all the way apart, revealing the purple inside of it. Ansem was waiting inside. They ran and jumped in where the pseudo dome was still part sand, but after Sora jumped in, the other three bounced off an invisible wall. Sora's eyes widened.

"_He lured me away from them. Smart…"_ The ground started shaking as a Darkside came out of the ground. Ansem was nowhere to be seen. _"But…He'll have to do better than that!"_ Sora jumped up and split the Darkside in two vertically. _"I've relied on myself for so long that it takes much more than this to have any effect on me!"_

"Impressive." Ansem reappeared in a dark aura. "But not nearly enough."

"_On the other hand, I could use some help with this. Oh!"_ Sora dodged an attack and switched Oblivion with Diamond Dust, summoning Shiva, who dodged a punch from the Guardian.

Sora transformed into his Valor form and ran behind Ansem, landing a hit, but Ansem dodged somewhat, lessening the damage done. Before he could attempt a counter though, Shiva fired several Blizzagas at him. The Heartless was forced to dodge another strike instead.

Sora cast a Thundaga behind Ansem to keep him from retreating while he went forward with another slash. At the last moment, the shadow guardian tried to intercept Sora, but it was attacked by Shiva, preventing it from latching on to the Tsviet. This allowed Sora to successfully land his attack on Ansem. He quickly went into a long combo that pushed Ansem to the edge of the closed in area.

Ansem eventually grunted and pushed Sora back using one of his energy blasts. His eyes went to his shadow guardian, which was still being held back by Shiva somehow. "You're better than I thought."

Sora didn't bother to waste his breath with a response. He simply fired off another Thundaga combined with a Firaga aimed at his head and a Blizzaga aimed at his feet. Ansem didn't move from his spot to avoid getting hit by lightning, but he did raise an arm to protect his face from the fire, which allowed the Blizzaga to hit his feet and freeze him to the spot. Sora instantly rushed in and impaled him through the abdomen.

And then there was nothing but darkness. Sora looked around in surprise, noticing that the rest of the group were there and looked just as surprised as him. "What just happened?"

"Behold the endless abyss!" Ansem still wasn't dead? ! "Within it lies the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts!" To Sora's surprise there was a pair of doors in the distance. "Look as hard as you are able! You'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light. From those dark depths are all hearts born. Even yours." Then something appeared out of nowhere. That was all Sora could think to call it because he didn't think it looked like anything he'd ever seen before. It resembled some sort of airship made of flesh, but it certainly wasn't an airship. It also had a much larger version of Ansem attached to it. "Darkness conquers all worlds!"

Then they suddenly started falling. Everyone except for Sora was pulled into some sort of vortex on the ship with a shout. Sora just kept falling past it.

"_Giving up already? Come on Sora, I thought you were tougher than that."_ Riku!

Sora grit his teeth, righted himself, and flew back up towards the ship, summoning Diamond Dust and Shiva as he did so. "We're not dying here!"

Sora quickly downed a hi-potion and dubbed tossed another to Shiva. "Watch my back once we get closer." Shiva nodded in understanding and the two quickly started flying forward. Ansem started firing some energy blasts at the two. The energy blasts moved very quickly, and were difficult to dodge even for Sora. They were pretty beat up by the time they reached Ansem.

Sora immediately got to attacking Ansem. Ansem tried to attack Sora with his lance, but Sora had lots and lots of experience fighting people much larger than him. He was able to move around all the attacks easily as he lashed out and landed any hits that he could. The faster evergy attacks wouldn't work in such close quarters so Ansem had to use energy orbs that move much more slowly.

Shiva easily destroyed all of them before they could touch Sora.

Sora meanwhile had noticed some…tentacles coming out of Ansem's back that attached to the container. Sora had no idea what they were for, but he figured they were important. So he carefully made his way to Ansem's back, pulled back, slashed downward, and severed the tentacles.

Ansem made a very strange noise and flew backwards into the container as the Heartless crest appeared and covered him. Sora slammed into the crest with a yell, but found Ansem was protected against it. "Dammit! How many times am I gonna have to kill you? !" Sora and Shiva flew back, looking for anything that might help out. He blinked when he saw a vortex that looked like the one that had sucked up the rest of the group. "…It's worth a try. C'mon Shiva." She nodded and the two flew into the vortex.

It led to…somewhere full of Shadows and an injured Aladdin.

"Are you okay? !" shouted Sora.

Aladdin panted. "Potion!" Sora was running low, but he tossed one of them to Aladdin. Then he and Shiva quickly started attacking the Heartless, easily killing them with a single strike. When the Heartless were gone, a strange orb appeared that Sora instinctively attacked it, breaking it in a flash of red light.

The three were immediately spit back out into the black space from the vortex they'd entered. An aura of darkness appeared around some blue…things in front of Ansem. Sora flew straight for them and started attacking them, destroying them by the time the others reached him. The dark aura then turned into another vortex that sucked the group up.

They were transported to another strange place that contained Shadows…and Goofy. "Sora!" He looked to be in pretty bad shape. Sora tossed him a potion.

"We really need to find Donald!" shouted Aladdin.

Sora nodded. "I'm running out of potions!" Maybe changing into his Valor form like that hadn't been such a good idea after all.

After the Shadows had all been killed, Darkballs appeared that had to be taken care of while protecting Aladdin and Goofy from any more attacks. After the Darkballs were defeated, another orb appeared that Sora also attacked. After shattering that one in a burst of red light, they were spat out of that space as well and back to the place with the warship.

Ansem still wasn't moving. The face at the front of the ship started moving though, and to Sora's surprise it actually started exhibiting a life force. That was freaky. Still, it was something. "We're gonna attack the front of the ship! Be careful though!"

The fact that it was a stationary target helped, but it used some sort of attack that caused energy to fall from the sky. Then it used some sort of attack that caused energy to burst out of its mouth and eyes, hitting anything that was near it. Shiva could divert the first attack, but she couldn't do anything about the second attack. It wasn't that strong a foe though.

The face's mouth fell open as its life faded, revealing another vortex. Sora immediately flew into it.

"Sora!" This one had Donald in it. He looked better than Goofy and Aladdin since he had Cure spells, but he still looked rather tired. He used Curaga on the other four and then went back to attacking the Invisibles and Darkballs. The rest quickly moved to help him. Yet another orb appeared after the Heartless were killed, and Sora quickly destroyed it, causing the group to be thrown back into the dark space yet again. As they flew out of the open mouth, the head exploded, leaving a gaping wound on the ship. Ansem still wasn't moving though.

Seeing that the force field protecting the center of the ship had disappeared, Sora gestured for the group to head over there. It was the right choice as some slow energy attacks were being fired from the area. Sora went straight for the thing with the face on it while the others attacked the fleshy protrusions coming up out of the floor.

As the thing with the face exploded in a burst of light, Sora flew out of the center to get a look at Ansem. The crest had disappeared, and he was finally coming out of the container. "He's out!" Ansem immediately started sending orbs of energy connected by a line of energy at them. Generous use of the Aeroga spell and careful dodging kept them from doing too much damage, and they were quickly right next to Ansem.

Ansem looked rather angry, but his moves were about the same. They seemed stronger, but that advantage was negated by the return of the missing members of the group. Sora tried severing the tentacles again, but that didn't work this time. Ansem must have learned and somehow made them stronger. So Sora knifed him in the back instead.

Ansem made another odd noise, and swiped behind him with his spear, which Sora had did dodge. He took solace in the fact that the injury would make it difficult for Ansem to breathe…If he did breathe.

Sora paused. He was still behind Ansem in a position that made it difficult for him to be hit…He stabbed Ansem in the head. That got Ansem angry enough to roar and somehow stab Sora despite not being in a position to see him.

Sora quickly flew back over to the others and huffed. "What does it take to kill this guy? !" Headshots like that should kill anyone, him included!

Goofy blocked an attack with a grunt. "Maybe you need to do that thing you did with Riku again!"

It took a few minutes for Sora to figure out what Goofy meant. At first, he thought the anthro was talking about when he got possessed by Sephiroth. Then he realized it was more likely that Goofy was talking about the second battle. The only thing he'd done that might work here was that strange attack that caused Riku to disappear. Sora didn't think he could do that again without Kairi though. It did give him an idea though.

"Shiva, I need to switch out!" Sora switched to Oathkeeper, causing Shiva to disappear. _"Kairi…I have no idea if you can hear me or if this is going to work, but please give me a hand here!"_ The Keyblade started glowing faintly. It wasn't nearly as much as when he fought Riku, but it was something at least. Sora reacted instinctively and threw the Keyblade at Ansem.

He must have done something right because it went right through Ansem, through the tentacles, and into the capsule.

The effect was instantaneous. The ship started to explode and fall apart. "Is this the answer? It can't be!" A light gathered at Ansem's chest and he dropped his weapon as his body started to jerk. Then it exploded.

To Sora's shock and exasperation that evidently wasn't enough to kill Ansem, although he was holding himself as though he was in immense pain…he was in front of the pair of doors and the rocks surrounding them though. That could be a problem. "It is futile. The Keyblade alone cannot seal the door to darkness." Ansem turned, reaching out towards the door. "Kingdom Hearts! Fill me with the power of darkness…" As if obeying him, the door started opening with shadow smoke leaking out of it. "Supreme darkness…"

Sora realized something in that moment though that made him realize that it wasn't what it appeared to be. "You're wrong." The birthplace of all hearts…but hearts were not full or darkness or born of darkness. "I know now, without a doubt. Kingdom Hearts is light!"

Light shot out of the doors, proving Sora right, and causing Ansem to recoil. Sora could see what was left of his life fading away. The one to land the final blow was, ironically enough, Kingdom Hearts, the thing Ansem had been seeking for so long. "The light…But…But why?" And Ansem finally, finally died in a flash of light.

There was a unanimous breath of relief. "So, should we go check Kingdom Hearts?" asked Aladdin.

"It would probably be a good idea." They floated over to the doors. "I'm guessing it would be a bad idea to leave them open…Let's close them." So they started pushing the doors in an attempt to close them.

Goofy, who was facing the doors, glanced inside and made a surprised noise. "Stop staring and keep pushing!" demanded Donald. Then Donald glanced inside to see what had caught Goofy's attention and also made a surprised noise. Curious, Sora and Aladdin glanced in as well.

Inside, along with some black rocks with glowing blue veins were Heartless. _"How'd those get there?"_ "Hurry! We need to close this before they escape!"

"They're not budging!"

A hand suddenly grabbed the door from _the other side_. "Don't give up!" Sora stared and followed the arm to the crack where Riku suddenly appeared. "Come on, Sora! Together we can do it!"

Aladdin's eyes widened. "Riku's alive?"

Sora swallowed. "Come with us!" He tried to grab Riku's hand, but went right through it.

"I can't."

Aladdin winced. "So, Riku's not alive?"

Sora felt tears pricking on the sides of his eyes but took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay." He went back to pushing while Riku started pulling. The doors started moving, slightly. Given the Darksides rising up on the other side though, they weren't moving fast enough.

"It's hopeless!" shouted Donald.

And then the Darksides exploded into smoke. That was odd because the only person who seemed to be there was Riku, and he was busy pulling at the doors. A figure suddenly somersaulted onto one of your rocks. Goofy and Donald started. "Your majesty!"

"Your majesty?" Sora couldn't make out many feature due to the light behind him, but the king had a thin tail and round ears.

"The king's a mouse?" asked Aladdin. Then again, that wasn't as surprising as it could've been.

The King then pulled out a Keyblade. It resembled the Kingdom Key except the color scheme had been reversed. "Now Sora! Let's close this door for good!"

Sora nodded and went back to pushing along with the others, glancing at Riku. "What about-"

"Don't worry," said the king. "There will always be a door to the light."

Goofy nodded. "Sora, you can trust King Mickey."

Riku nodded in agreement before looking back towards King Mickey and the Heartless. "Now! They're coming!"

Mickey looked back towards the group. "Donald, Goofy, thank you."

They started pushing the doors again, somehow pushing them closed much more quickly. Sora kept looking at Riku, who turned to look at him. He smiled.

"Take care of her."

Sora nodded. And then the doors were closed and Riku could no longer be seen. Sora jumped back, summoned the Kingdom Key, and held it up. Light gathered at the tip and he pointed it at the door. Unseen to him, King Mickey did the same thing on the other side. Both pointed the keys at the door, shooting a pair of beams at both sides of the doors. The doors started to glow. Then they flashed brightly and started to fade away.

The group was still on the rock though.

"That's it?" asked Aladdin.

"I guess so…" And there didn't seem to be any way out of here.

Aladdin gasped. "Jasmine?" Sure enough, a surprised Jasmine was standing over to the side. As Aladdin ran over, Sora felt someone staring at him and turned.

It was Kairi. She was farther away than Jasmine, but she was just as confused. Sora immediately ran to her. Donald winced and made to stop one of them, but was stopped when Goofy put a hand on his shoulder. Instead, the two watched sadly as good-byes were made.

Sora panted as he reached Kairi. The ground she was standing on looked completely different from what he was standing on, the sand of the islands they called home. "Kairi!"

She looked at him in surprise. "Sora!"

The ground started to separate, causing Kairi to stumble into Sora. She was quickly pulled away from him, but their hands were still tightly clasped. _"I can't go with her either."_ "Kairi! Remember what you said before? I'm always with you too!" Kairi was drifting away too quickly. "I'll come back to you! I promise!"

"I know you will!"

And then their hands were pulled apart and Sora could only watch Kairi as she drifted farther and farther away.

As they continued to drift apart, a light drifted down in front of Kairi. She looked up and saw thousands of other lights drifting downwards.

The same thing was happening where the boys were, much to their pleasant surprise.

As the lights fell around Kairi, Destiny Islands started to sprout around her. The waves started to rush in. Sora shouted something to Kairi, but she couldn't make out what he was saying as he disappeared in a bright light that stayed on the horizon as several small lights shot out of it and into the sky, becoming stars as Kairi watched the display in awe. She smiled sadly.

After the lights disappeared and the sun rose, everything looked completely normal again. Kairi made her way to the Secret Spot. As she looked at all the drawings the three of them had made over the years, she was surprised to find one she'd never seen before of Sora giving her a paopu fruit. She put a hand on the drawing, laughing sadly as a tear rolled down her cheek. She picked up a rock and started adding to Sora's picture.

Oddly enough, the group of boys ended up in a rolling green pasture with trees and a single path. Sora was back in his red clothes, Aladdin was back in his formerly destroyed clothes, Donald was wearing a blue sailor shirt and hat, and Goofy was wearing a green hat, orange shirt, yellow vest, blue pants, and brown shoes.

None of them had any clue to when this happened.

"Well, now what do we do?" asked Donald.

"We're gonna find Riku and King Mickey," said Sora. "Then we're gonna find Agrabah and Destiny Islands."

"Where're we supposed to find that door the king was talking about though?" asked Aladdin.

No one had an answer to that. They all let out a loud sigh. Sora blinked when he heard footsteps and looked up.

There was an orange dog with something in its mouth walking across the path. A very familiar dog… "How'd that dog get here?"

Everyone else looked up. "Pluto?" The dog stopped at Donald's voice and looked over at the group.

"Hey, Pluto, where have you been?" asked Goofy. Sora looked at him in surprise.

"That's your dog?"

"He's King Mickey's," explained Donald.

"What's that in his mouth?" asked Aladdin.

It was a letter with a weird symbol on it. "Hey, that's the king's seal!" said Goofy.

Sora leaned forwards towards Pluto. "Hey, have you seen King Mickey?" Pluto immediately turned and started loping off down the path. The boys grinned. "Well? Let's go!" So they ran after the dog into the unknown, grinning all the way.

_Remember, Sora. You are the one who will open the door to the light._

**Owari**

And that is the end of that! Whew! That last chapter was really hard to write! The workload from school probably didn't help.

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who's stayed with me since the beginning. You guys are awesome!

Secondly, I'm gonna try to write a sequel to this, and I'm gonna try a different style that will hopefully let me update more quickly.

Thirdly, I would like to issue a writing challenge. As you may remember, since Zoro is a Tsviet, he ended up being replaced by Terra Bradford. I'd like to see what you guys think will happen due to that change in the crew line-up. I'd write it myself, but my current projects take enough time as it is and I have to find a job or something similar. When I actually get one, who knows how much writing I'll be able to do when I do. The rules are as follows:

This is the only change you may make to the crew. You can't change anyone else, and all the back stories will be the same unless it's someone Zoro would have interacted with before meeting the crew. For example, the events at Usopp's island will be about the same since Zoro didn't have anything to do with what happened, but since Terra isn't interested in swords, she won't challenge Mihawk to a fight at the Barate, which will change things around somewhat.

As romance is not one of One Piece's genres, this will not be a romance story. It is action and adventure like the original. You can have a little flirtation and blushing, but nothing like a romantic relationship a whole chapter is related to.

Terra will not get a devil fruit power. Nobody likes a mary-sue.

You must let me know about the story so I can read it.

Other than that, feel free to knock yourself out.

I'll see you in Chain of Memories!


End file.
